


Traitors and Trades

by KC10FltEng



Category: Star Wars Legends: Legacy of the Force Series - Aaron Allston & Troy Denning & Karen Traviss
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-29
Updated: 2020-05-13
Packaged: 2021-02-28 06:41:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 35,170
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22959589
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KC10FltEng/pseuds/KC10FltEng
Summary: Jacen Solo spent a lot of time pondering what his Sith 'sacrifice' was going to be.  As usual, he over-thought things...perhaps his sacrifice was not such a hard decision after all.  Totally AU where things are a bit more plausible...and where a conversation changes the course of a galaxy.Set somewhere in the first third of Legacy of the Force -- shortly after Jacen is named head of the Galactic Alliance Guard.   I've only read the series once, so any timeline inconsistencies are purely the result of my bad memory and/or wishful thinking.
Relationships: Tenel Ka Djo/Jacen Solo
Comments: 2
Kudos: 11





	1. Plans and Prophesies

_Senate Administration Building--Coruscant_

The head of the Galactic Alliance Guard stood at a sloppy ‘parade rest’ in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows in his unlit office, staring sightlessly into the late-night semi-darkness of Coruscant, trying to settle his thoughts.

“A credit for your thoughts?” asked a slightly metallic feminine voice from behind him.

Jacen closed his eyes in resignation and leaned his head against the transparisteel. He was not sure how the Dark Lady of the Sith always managed to enter his office without making a sound, but it was a skill he _really_ needed to learn. 

“Good…” He paused, checking his wrist chrono, “…morning, Lumiya,” Jacen replied drily, glancing at her from the corner of his eye. Nodding in the direction of the cityscape, “I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of the view.”

Lumiya regarded her student for a moment before replying, a hint of a smile in her voice. “Somehow, I get the feeling that you are not standing in the dark simply to admire the view.” She became more amused when she saw Jacen stiffen slightly. _You cannot hide from me yet, young one._

Her tone turned serious, “You’ve been giving it more thought?”

Jacen sighed, louder this time, turning his attention back to the vista. There was no need to ask what _it_ was; they both knew that she was referring to the final obstacle he needed to overcome on his path to being a Sith Lord: his final sacrifice.

“Yes.”

His teacher smiled behind her mask as she heard the finality in his curt answer. “You have made a decision.”

Jacen noticed that it was not a question. “Yes.” 

“Go-ood,” she drawled, sending shivers down his spine. Lumiya stepped closer and put a hand on his shoulder. “At last you will realize your full potential.” 

Jacen supposed that the way she squeezed his shoulder was meant as an affectionate gesture; instead he found himself repulsed by the act. Turning his head again to glance at her, he risked a confident-looking smile, “It’ll take me a few more days to plan out all of the details, of course.”

There was the hint of a smile in her green eyes as she squeezed his shoulder again. “Of course.” Sensing his inner turmoil, she tried to reassure her student, “You _will_ save the galaxy.”

Colonel Solo had no answer to that, and only gave a small nod as he watched his instructor leave.

Hearing his office door close with a quiet _thump_ , Jacen allowed a small smile of victory. Lying to Lumiya was almost impossible, of course, but _obfuscating_ the truth? Not all that hard. She had accepted his answers and filled in the rest with her own misconceptions. In truth, he had known for almost five weeks whom his sacrifice was going to be. Even now, the memory of what he saw in his visions made him break out in a cold sweat: millions of beings slaughtered, planets burning, his daughter becoming the dark ruler of the galaxy. No, Lumiya was correct; someone must be sacrificed for the greater good.

Still, it had taken him couple of days to get over his initial doubts. Once fully committed to the task, however, Jacen had started planning out his attack meticulously, going so far as to have all the contingencies detailed in his head for when things started to go wrong.

Still, even with all of his planning, it had still been an odd twist of fate that allowed Jacen put his plan into action…

|

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O O

* * *

 _Eleven days earlier_ …

When Jacen had taken the job as the head of the GAG, Chief-of-State Omas had kindly omitted telling him the amount of paperwork the job would entail. Sitting at his desk as the first rays of sunlight peaked through the gaps in the distant skyline, Jacen tried to get a handle on the vast amount of money the GAG had been appropriated. Annoyed by the glare on his computer screen, Jacen turned to close the blinds and stopped, mesmerized by the view. In a shameless attempt to curry favor, Omas had placed the GAG headquarters in the top third of the Executive Office building, allowing for a breathtaking view of the Coruscanti skyline. There were, Jacen decided after a moment, definitely perks to his new job. 

After a few moments, Colonel Solo turned back to the month’s budget, wishing he could simply go out on patrol with his fellow agents. Frowning at the thought, he glanced at the wall chrono: Why couldn’t he go out on patrol? He _was_ the boss, after all. Wedge had once told he and Jaina that a leader needed to be _seen_ ; that leading from an office was not leading, it was managing. Thus decided, Jacen turned off his computer terminal, cringing at how long he would have to stay tonight to catch up with the paperwork.

Making his way down the curved hallway towards the briefing room, Jacen lost himself in the sounds of laughter and conversation coming from the armory and small break room as the agents prepared for the day’s shift. More than anything else, Jacen missed the easy camaraderie of being ‘one of the guys’. As he let out a pained sigh, it occurred to him that his mother was right: it _is_ lonely at the top.

Pushing the depressing thought aside, he gave the desk sergeant a discreet shake of the head as the slightly older man stood and opened his mouth to call the area to ‘attention’. While Jacen appreciated the sentiment and the discipline, he had never been one for formality, preferring to be seen as just another GAG officer. On some level, he suspected that being Han Solo’s kid had something to do with that. 

Smiling at the thought, he stopped at the sergeant’s raised desk, “Morning, Sergeant.”

The Senior Sergeant nodded in return, “Good morning Colonel. What brings you in so early?” 

A shorter, dark-skinned man in his late thirties, with piercing dark brown eyes, and a hook nose, Vinsu Karthikayan had the look of one of Coruscant’s hawk-bats - seemingly analyzing you to to determine if you were a threat or simply something to eat. Karthikayan had been working for Alliance Intelligence when Jacen met him quite by accident at a local pastry shop. 

In the way that only people who fought in combat can, Jacen had recognized him as a fellow veteran _._ As they stood in line and discussed their work, Jacen picked up on Vinsu’s dissatisfaction with being a ‘paper-pusher’ for the AI; that he was never able to make important decisions. 

_I’m starting a new agency_ , Jacen had told the older man, _I can’t promise danger and excitement, but I can promise that you won’t be cut out of the process. I need people who can think on their feet and aren’t afraid of making decisions_. Two days later, Vinsu knocked on Jacen’s office door, asking when he could start.

Chuckling humorlessly, Jacen shook his head as he answered, “If I would have known how much paperwork was involved when I started, I might have declined the job.”

The other man nodded and shrugged in understanding, “You think it’s bad here? You should have seen it in NRI.” Vinsu paused and narrowed his eyes, his voice turning gruff, “Or AI, or whatever the hell they call it now. I wish they’d stop changing the name on the letterhead.”

Jacen smiled at the comment; he had often thought the same thing. It is tough, he decided, to instill loyalty to a government when that government keeps changing its name. 

“Tell me about it.” Looking back up at the Desk Sergeant, a rare glint of mischief in his eyes, “Isn’t a ‘Federation of Alliances’ a bit...redundant?”

Sergeant Karthikayan snorted a laugh. A joke? From Colonel Solo? He never would have guessed. “Kinda like saying VIN number?”

It was Jacen’s turn to chuckle, “Or an ATM machine?”

Both men chuckled at themselves for a couple of moments, content to simply be ‘one of the guys’ for a time. “As much as I appreciate the jokes...” Vinsu shot Jacen another amused look, “...what’chya need, Boss?”

The younger man gave his Desk Sergeant an almost pleading look, “I have _got_ to get out of the office. Please tell me that you have _somebody_ who needs a partner for the day.”

One of the reasons that Sergeant Karthikayan respected his boss so much was that Colonel Solo never asked his troops to do anything that he would not do himself. Everyone in the GAG appreciated that their Colonel went on stakeouts with them, threw himself into the line of fire first, and was out making sure that the Senate knew how much safer Coruscant was because of the GAG. He never said so, but _everyone_ in the GAG knew how proud Colonel Solo was of them; they knew because they saw him out doing the same things he asked them to do. 

Nodding once, Karthikayan answered, “I do. Shimizu’s girlfriend had emergency knee surgery yesterday and I was hoping to give him the day off.”

Jacen became concerned. Although technically not allowed because he was not married, Akai Shimizu still should be allowed a couple of days off to help his girlfriend. “Anything serious?”

Vinsu gave him a wounded look as he shook his head, “Not life threatening. Someone at work banged into her and she tore a ligament in her left knee when she fell.” He saw Jacen open his mouth to comment but pressed on before his boss could say anything, “She still lives with her parents, so she’s not by herself.” The sergeant nodded over at the briefing room where the day shift was gathering for the shift briefing, “I was going to send him home again today, but he insists on working.”

“Akai doesn’t want to leave his partner in a lurch.”

The darker man smiled slightly at the quiet pride in his boss’s tone, “Exactly. We need to let him know that there _are_ things more important than the job.”

Colonel Solo nodded in agreement and his thoughts drifted to Allana and to Tenel Ka as he made his way to the door to the briefing room. Sticking his head into the room, he looked around and found Akai Shimizu sitting with his partner, Darra Beks. 

“Akai? Can I have word please?”

A deathly quiet filled the room as one of the GAG’s youngest agents slinked out, his eyes full of dread.

Once out in the hallway, Jacen turned to face the young agent and saw his uncertainty. Smiling, he shook his head. “No, you’re not in trouble; I heard that your girlfriend had surgery yesterday. I’m going to take your shift so that you can spend some time with her.” Jacen raised his hand to stall Akai’s coming argument. “This job is hard enough on relationships,” he interrupted softly, “We don’t need to make it tougher than it already is.” His thoughts back drifted to what Vinsu had just said. _There_ are _things more important than the job._

Sergeant Shimizu nodded, somehow understanding that Colonel Solo was partly talking to himself. “Thank you, sir.”

Jacen snapped from his reverie and shook the younger man’s hand, “Anytime.” 

With that, Colonel Solo entered the briefing room to sit next to his partner for the day and listened in on the morning shift brief.

|

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O O

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I know, I know...there probably aren't any ATMs on Coruscant, and speeders probably don't come with VINs...but I liked the joke. Besides, people in-universe probably have some way of getting access to actual credits, and speeders probably have some ID stamped on them at the factory! This story is some 15 chapters long, and I'll try to update regularly. Please leave a review if you are so inclined!


	2. Dawn Patrol

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to everyone who has offered 'kudos'! I've actually that the whole story completed and I will try to update here every 4-5 days...once a week seems a bit too far apart...but any sooner seems too clustered.

_Galactic Alliance Guard Parking Structure -- Senate District, Coruscant_

Jacen spied their patrol speeder amongst the myriad of GAG speeders in the garage and gestured towards Sergeant Beks, who was searching a couple of rows to his left. “Found it.” 

Darra Beks nodded in acknowledgment, but said nothing, clearly _very_ nervous about going on patrol with the boss. A tall kid of twenty-three, and his blonde hair cut in a severe crew cut, Darra was part of the second wave of Guard hires the previous summer. He had been third in his class at the Police Academy, and possessed the rare ability to stand up to contrary opinions without getting upset, which is what led to his interview with the GAG. The hiring board had been impressed with the young man’s desire to follow procedure and protect the integrity of due process and had offered him a posting at the conclusion of the interview.

After performing a perfunctory inspection, the pair hopped into the speeder, Jacen at the controls. Pulling out of the garage, Solo glanced over at his partner, “I don’t know about you, but I could use a bite.”

Beks tried to hide his relief; he had been afraid that Colonel Solo would insist on rigid protocol and skip the time-honored police tradition of going to breakfast right after the morning brief.

“Sounds good.”

Jacen smiled slightly at the nonchalant tone; he knew that most of the patrol teams grabbed breakfast as soon as they left the station, and could hardly begrudge them. Because the morning brief was at 0545, and with Coruscant traffic being what it was, most of the GAG were forced to eat on the job.

After breakfast, Jacen re-entered the traffic flow and started heading towards their assigned patrol area. “How do you like….” Jacen started to ask his partner before being interrupted by the police comm: 

_All units in Sector 81, we have a 10-39 reported: Grid Foxtrot-2, level 10. Please respond_. 

Curious, Jacen nodded at the speeder’s moving-map display, “Can you find that?” Technically, this was out of the GAG’s jurisdiction, but if no one else were closer...well, he had told his secretary just the other day that he thought the GAG and CPD needed to have a better working relationship.

“Sure thing.” With a couple of keystrokes, Darra pulled up the location. “It’s not far—maybe 5 klicks.” He paused as the computer overlaid all of the GAG and CPD cruisers in the area and shook his head slightly, “Nearest police asset is ten…fifteen minutes out.”

“Tell them we’re on our way.” Jacen replied as he put down his cup, quarter-rolled the speeder onto its left side and knife-edged downwards through traffic before rolling out thee-hundred meters lower, heading in the opposite direction. 

After swallowing hard to force his breakfast back down, Darra grabbed the handset and keyed the mic, “Dispatch, this is Guardian 54; we’re two minutes away from that location. Proceeding now.”

There was a pregnant pause on the radio as the dispatch sergeant keyed the mic but did not say respond. Finally, _Uhhh…roger that, Guardian 54._ Both men got the distinct impression that Dispatch did _not_ want any GAG ‘help’, but did not have the nerve to say it on an open frequency. _Expect assistance as soon as possible._ Impossible to miss was the unspoken message for them to leave as soon as the ‘real’ police got to the scene.

Sergeant Beks grinned at Dispatch’s tone, “Guardian 54 copies.”

Parking the speeder near the small throng gathering around a cluster of dumpsters, Jacen felt a spike of panic and saw a few people quickly disperse. Grimacing at the fear his speeder induced, Jacen grabbed his uniform hat off of the dashboard and followed Darra to the scene.

On the south side of the dumpsters, a man in his mid-thirties with wavy, shoulder-length, sandy-brown hair was lying awkwardly with limbs akimbo on top of a modest pile of trash bags—his dark eyes staring sightlessly into the early morning sky. Getting closer, Jacen could see a long cut across the man’s throat and the front of his light blue shirt and grey business coat stained black with blood. Interestingly, there was very little blood on the surrounding trash, implying that the man had been killed somewhere else and then dumped here. Staring at the body, Jacen had the unsettling sense that he should recognize the man.

For a long moment, both of them studied the body. Finally, Beks broke the silence. “I’ll start roping off the scene.”

Nodding once, Jacen turned back to the small group of onlookers, hoping that the person who had called in the report was still around. “Did any of you call the police?” He asked, hoping to sound authoritative, yet approachable. 

With a resigned sigh, an elderly Neimodian stepped forward. “I did, Officer.” He answered in heavily accented Basic.

“Good morning, sir,” Jacen offered, extending his hand, “I’m Colonel Solo. Can I ask you a few questions?” 

Knowing he didn’t really have any options, and looking like he wanted to disappear into the pavement, the Neimodian nodded once. “Of course.”

Recognizing his unease, Jacen offered a small smile, “We’re only doing the preliminary work—once CPD gets here, we’ll turn the investigation over to them.” Seeing the man relax slightly, the GAG Colonel continued as he pulled a datapad and stylo from his inside jacket pocket, “When did you find the body?”

“Twenty minutes ago. I am building superintendent and moved trash from bins to city dumpster.” The Neimodian replied, pointing over to where he had found the body.

“Which one is your building?” Jacen asked, trying to get an idea on what the other’s point-of-view would have been as he approached the large dumpster.

“That one.” The man answered, pointing over Jacen’s left shoulder.

Jacen took a look and jotted down the building’s address. “Did you notice anything unusual last night?” Because of their size, many apartment complexes took the trash to the city dumpsters several times a day, and he was guessing that this one did as well.

The Neimodian shook his head, “My wife, she take out trash last night. She no say anything about body.”

“What time was that?”

“My wife, she like clock; take out trash at 11:30.”

Jacen nodded as he wrote; it was not much, but at least they could narrow it down to a seven-hour window.

“Can you stick around for a bit? CPD might have a few more questions.” Jacen asked, pocketing the datapad.

“Of course, Colonel.” 

Jacen did his best to ignore the feeling of relief coming from the Neimodian and walked over to the victim, ducking under the tape Beks had strung around. From the way the trash bags had blown out, and from the man’s disheveled appearance, it looked like he had fell from a considerable height. Sighing, Jacen looked up, hoping to see a balcony or walkway. Unfortunately, there was neither. 

“Who are you, my friend?” Jacen asked quietly, squatting next to the dead man. Gently, he ran his hand up the man’s thighs, searching for a wallet or some other way of identifying the man. Nothing. He then did a cursory search of the man’s jacket, again coming up empty. Whether the man’s wallet had been taken before or after he had been dumped here was impossible to say.

Getting up, Jacen gingerly stepped over the body and placed a hand on the dumpster, making sure to hide in the shadows: he had one more trick to try. Closing his eyes, he delved into the Force and slowly took in the scene. After a few moments, time started to flow backwards in this small section of Coruscant. He saw his police speeder back away from its parking spot, saw the crowd start to form, watched as the Neimodian drop the trash in surprise at seeing the body, watched as day turned again into night. Shortly before sunrise, the man rose quickly into the air and Jacen stopped his ‘playback’. Immersed in his ‘flow-walk’, he looked up and saw that the man had been thrown from dark-colored speeder from a height of about thirty meters. He tried to get an ID plate number or an obvious dent, paint blemish…anything that might make it easier to find the speeder. Unfortunately, it was just too far up and moving too fast to get anything other than general color and style. 

Sighing, Jacen opened his eyes and let his perception return to the present and saw that a CPD detective was looking at him expectantly, just inside the cordon.

“Your Jedi voodoo turn up anything?” The slightly older man asked, with no trace of anger or resentment. Word of Colonel Solo’s ‘unorthodox’ abilities had gotten around CPD, and the police were always on the look-out for new ways to solve crimes.

Jacen shook his head. “Nothing useful. Body was thrown out of a speeder from thirty, maybe thirty-five meters up. Late model sedan, dark color.” He nodded at the body, “I couldn’t find any ID.”

The detective grimaced and took a couple of steps, kneeling by the body. “Another John Doe. Third one this week in this sector.”

Jacen could only nod at the grim tone. For the first few years after the ‘return’ of Coruscant, crime had been almost non-existent. But, as happens eventually, the economy started to level off and the underbelly of society started to make its appearance.

As he watched the detective gently check the body for identification, Jacen scrutinized the victim’s face. “He looks familiar, somehow.”

Puzzled, the detective turned his head, “He looks like you. Well, the hair is a bit lighter, and his ears and nose are a bit bigger.” He paused, and looked back at the victim, “Otherwise…he’s you.”

Startled, Jacen looked back at the ‘John Doe’ and was shocked he did not see it before: the resemblance was quite clear.

|

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O O

Over the course of the next week, Jacen learned that being a high-ranking official in the Galactic Alliance Guard _DID_ have its advantages. The examiner at the morgue did not think it odd that Colonel Solo asked for a full set of dental x-rays on ‘John Doe’; the computer specialist in personnel took the explanation of ‘Mission priority’ when Jacen asked for Mr. Doe’s dental records be substituted for his own; the sergeant at Pass & ID only nodded knowingly when he was asked to produce a passport for the boss using an assumed name. Not one to leave things to chance, Jacen blanked his visit from their memories, making sure to replace his visit with that of someone attractive and interesting. Indeed, the hardest thing for Jacen to pull off as he waited the full seven days needed before he could claim ‘John Doe’s’ body was using the Force to lighten his hair color to match that of the poor man.

* * *

Thanks for reading!


	3. Trading Places

_Mizobon Spaceport, Coruscant--_

Once inside the cavernous terminal, Jacen ducked into the nearest ‘fresher to make one final check on his appearance. Stopping in front of one of the mirrors, he took a critical look at the face staring back at him. It was a pleasant face, one that was neither rakishly handsome nor frighteningly homely. An honest, good-looking, slightly above average face. Giving a satisfied nod with his new look, Jason Naberre, a businessman from Commenor, straightened his necktie and exited.

Stepping up to the check-in counter, Jacen smirked at the absurdity of the moment. He had been from one end of the galaxy to the other, had been to more planets than he could count; and not _once_ had he flown commercially. After standing in line for the last ten minutes, he started to understand why so many people complained about flying this way--it was _tedious_. Shaking his head, Jacen gave the man behind the counter a small smile as he handed the agent his travel documents.

The young man behind the counter returned the smile and gave Jacen’s identification a cursory glance, “Good afternoon Mr. Naberre. I see that we have you in a private berth.” Jacen nodded. “Would you prefer an interior berth, or one with a window?”

Jacen shrugged fractionally, “Actually…” Jacen turned his head to casually glance once again at a woman in her mid-twenties standing in the ‘Coach’ line, “…is it possible to swap berths with someone?”

The younger man looked up quizzically, “Why would you want to do that?”

Nodding in the direction of the woman, “Do you see the brunette woman in the ‘Coach’ line; the one in the Hapan Navy uniform?”

The agent smiled knowingly as he caught on to Jacen’s plan. It was, after all, a two-day flight to their destination. “Ah. Perhaps she’ll offer her appreciation?”

Jacen rolled his eyes at the insinuation, “No-o-o.” He noticed that the other man look unconvinced. Explaining further, “Our military personnel give up a lot, the least I can do is pay for her to have a decent berth.”

The agent looked at him thoughtfully ~~.~~ Finally, he gave Jacen a respectful nod. “I hadn’t really thought of it like that.” He looked down at the computer monitor, and typed in a few commands. Mumbling to himself, “No, we can do better than that.” A few more keystrokes. “Hmm…nope. I can still do better.” More typing. “Got it. Unfortunately, I will have to charge two-hundred and fifty credits to change reservations. Is that okay?”

Jacen smiled; in truth, he expected to have to pay more. “No problem.” As he dug his wallet out of his pocket, he continued, “Her last name is ‘Do’ma’.” Placing three one-hundred-credit chits on the counter, he looked again at the man, “Start booking her berth; I’ll go get her.” Jacen turned and made his way over to the young Navy officer.

The agent stood stunned for a second. Who carries three hundred credits in _cash_ anymore? And from the look of his wallet, he was carrying more; lots more. Shaking his head, he started to change Mr. Naberre’s reservation.

|

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O O

Impatiently waiting in line, Kenara Do’ma tried to read her holozine. To her, it seemed a bit unfair that not only was the ‘coach’ line longer, but the check-in agents seemed to be slower. She had already been in line ten minutes when she first noticed the modestly hansome man with wavy sand-brown hair in the first-class lane who was surreptitiously casting glances in her direction. Her mother’s voice sounded in her head: _You will find that the older you get, the younger men seem to act._ Chuckling to herself, she again cast a furtive glance at the slightly older man. To her dismay, he was already in the process of checking in, while it looked as if she had another fifteen minutes to wait. Sighing at the seeming unfairness of it all, she returned her attention to the article she was reading, tuning out the random sounds of the spaceport.

“Excuse me, Ensign? Ensign Do’ma?”

Only on the second use of her rank did Kenara realize that someone was talking to her. Startled, she glanced up from her holozine and saw that the ‘cutie’, as she had mentally labeled him, was looking at her expectantly. 

“Miss, if you could follow me, please.” He sounded polite, but she could tell from his tone that he was used to being in command. Sensing her apprehension as she grabbed her handbag off the floor, the strange man smiled. “No, no, nothing’s wrong. This way please.” 

Following, Kenara reflected that his smile did not quite reach his eyes – it was almost seemed as if he had forgotten how to smile. This troubled her a bit; he was not much older than she, how could have he gotten so jaded at such an age?

As her mysterious stranger reached the counter, he turned and held at his hand, indicating that he would take her small roll-on. Placing her bag on the check-in scale, he grabbed a boarding card off the counter and turned his head to explain what was happening. 

“I’ve taken the liberty of upgrading you to my first-class cabin as a way of saying ‘thank you’ for your service to the Consortium.” His tone turned somber, “I remember how much one has to give up being in the military.” 

Kenara could not help but hear some of the pain in his voice and she noticed that this time his emotion showed in his brown eye. Offering a polite smile, she started to decline. “Thank you, sir, but I haven’t really…”

“Think of it more as accepting this on behalf of the entire Hapan Navy.” The man interrupted warmly, as he flashed her a small smile. “Please mention to your superiors that there are still Coruscantis who remember the sacrifices Hapes made in the war.”

She started to reply but was interrupted by the check-in agent. “Miss, if I could see your documents please.”

Turning her attention to the man behind the counter, Kenara handed him her travel ticket and ID, “Certainly.”

“I took the liberty of booking you in the ‘executive suite’, so you’ll have a view out the bow of the ship.” He looked up at her an gave her a wry smile, “You’ll be one of the few who can see where you’re headed, not where you’ve been.” He learned forward and whispered conspiratorially, “You’d be amazed at what kind of power I have when it comes to cabin assignments.”

Kenara chuckled, “Oh, I’m sure.” She turned to thank her new friend, only to find that he had disappeared. Frowning, she scanned the surrounding crowd.

“Miss? Ensign Do’ma?” Kenara finally turned back to the counter agent, “Here is you boarding pass.” He said, handing her the paperwork.

The brunette woman narrowed her eyes when she saw the fifty-credit chit on top of the blue ticket jacket. “What’s this?”

“That’s his change.”

Indignantly, she frowned at the agent and gestured around, “He’s _gone!_ How am I supposed to get this back to him?” The young man only offered a shrug. Exasperated, Kenara asked, “Well, can you at least tell me his name so that I can track him down?”

Smiling an ingratiating smile, he answered, “Sorry miss, it’s against company policy to give out passenger information.”

Reminding herself that she could be brought up on court-martial charges if she throttled a civilian, she huffed at the impossible man, performed a smart ‘about face’ and marched over to the security check, her black dress pumps clicking on the marble flooring.

Jacen followed Ensign Do’ma from a respectful distance, keeping a discrete eye on the young Hapan naval officer as she boarded the space liner. He could sense her determination to find him, and that bothered him a bit—most service members would have simply shrugged off his generosity and contented themselves with knowing that there are still people who understood the travails of military life. Ensign Do’ma, however, seemed to be a different sort; she acted as if it was in insult not to know his identity. Jacen shook his head: _Get used to disappointment, sweetheart_. Still, it would not do for an employee of the Crown to undermine his carefully laid plan, so he had best be cautious. Fortunately, the _Olympic_ was a big passenger liner, so it should be easy to hide from _one_ person. 

I truth, Jacen still was not quite sure why he had the urge to pay for her upgrade. Would he have done it if she had been male? Jacen wanted to think so, but he was not quite that naïve—she _was_ pretty, after all. Furthermore, he was not lying when he had told the young Ensign how difficult life could be in the military; she was just too young to understand. 

Maybe it was just that after so many months of interrogations, searches, arrests, roundups, and bloodshed, he simply wanted to be _nice_ to someone. Snorting in disbelief, he thought it a pity that he rediscovered his humanity only _after_ he knew that he had to sacrifice it for the greater good.

After discretely ensuring that the Hapan got to her cabin, Jacen spent the next hour or so wandering around the Polstjärnan Company’s passenger liner _Olympic,_ taking in the over-the-top opulence. _Nobody does pretentious like the Hapans_. Chuckling at the thought, he finally found his cabin and was unsurprised at the décor. Even in ‘economy’, the furnishings were opulent. The carpet was a rich green, the walls were overlaid with a warm oro wood paneling with darker inlays of Hapan fir and the double-size bed looked almost too soft to be comfortable. Heading into the ‘fresher, herolled his eyes at the gold fixtures; he still never understood why people thought gold faucets to be a status symbol. 

Checking the chrono on the ‘fresher wall, he saw that he still had a good half-hour before the _Olympic_ departed Coruscant. He toyed with the idea of taking another stroll around the ship, but quickly discarded the idea, not wanting to risk running into Ensign Do’ma again. He wasn’t afraid of her _per se_ , but he did not have much of a back-story for his persona as ‘Jason Naberre’ and had seen too many examples of just how bad people are at trying to invent a personal history on the fly. 

Since going out was not a viable option, he lay down on the bed and quietly talked himself through his Plan _Aurek_ again, trying to find any holes that he had not accounted for on his previous run-throughs. One of the lessons he learned from Myrkr was to make sure that he had covered _every_ possible outcome, running each different scenario through to its most likely conclusion. His sister would argue that he was over-thinking again, but he long ago resolved to not _ever_ be caught like they were on Myrkr: unprepared for the reality of the situation. Anakin and Jaina always thought that they could freelance their way out of anything, and it was that sort of cavalier thinking that had gotten Anakin killed.

After running all the possible permutations of Plan _Aurek_ , he then did the same for plans _Besh_ , _Cresh_ , _Dorn_ , and _Esk_ , making sure to account for every variable. So lost was he in running through his permutations that he did not notice when the _Olympic_ made its on-time departure from Coruscant at 0125, nor did he notice dozing off...

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**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again for reading! I'm always in the mood for feedback!


	4. Early morning run

The clock above the corner bank read 6:04 as Jacen jogged by, the sky turning pink on the eastern horizon. Turning the corner, he saw three men mercilessly kicking a body on the ground and abruptly stopped. Hearing his footsteps, the largest of them turned around as the shortest man gave one last kick to the person on the ground.

“Turn around hero, this ain’t your business.”

Jacen sighed. “Yeah… it is.” He might be a lousy Jedi, but he still was an officer of the law and could not just turn away.

The big man flashed an evil smile as he casually flipped his rounders bat, “I was hopin’ you’d say that.”

Smirking, Jacen reached down for his lightsaber, but could not find it on his belt. Confused, his smirk turned into a puzzled one and he looked down, only to find that that not only was his lightsaber missing, so was the lower half of his right arm.

The big man chuckled humorlessly as he took two steps forward, “Looks like you’ve got a real problem there, Hero.” Before he even finished talking, he was swinging his bat at Jacen’s midsection, surprising the Jedi with his speed.

With reflexes borne from practicing against some of the fastest beings ever to yield a lightsaber, Jacen bent over backwards, the tip of the metallic weapon just missing his chin, and immediately counter-attacked with a Force-aided (and left-handed) punch meant to catch the man in the throat. Unfortunately, his aim was off and he only managed to punch the man in the upper chest, the giant of a man stumbling backwards.

Jacen immediately took a step forward to seize take control of the fight but was staggered by a blow to his right temple, followed immediately by one to his right ribcage. So focused had he been on the bigger man, he had forgotten about the other two gentlemen and was now paying the price. Turning to meet the new threat, Jacen was about to lash out with the Force when the first man landed a blow to Jacen’s left kidney, knocking him to the ground.

As Jacen scrambled to his feet, one of the other men got him in a chokehold with an arm around his throat and pinned Jacen’s arm behind him. Jacen continued to struggle, but the man simply tightened the pressure on his throat and Jacen was forced to stop.

“Too bad you’ve only got one arm, Hero.” The big man said, “We might have had ourselves a fair fight. As it is...” he shrugged slightly, “…. well, we’re just going to have an old-fashioned whuppin’.” He nodded at the man holding him, “Keep him upright.”

Jacen really had no idea how long the beating lasted, nor could he keep track of the number of ribs and facial bones the big man either broke or fractured. All he knew was that he eventually found himself on his knees, spitting out blood and fractured teeth. After wiping his chin, Jacen struggled to rise to one knee, earning a respectful chuckle from the big man. 

“You certainly are brave.” He commented, raising his club one last time. “So long, Hero.”

There was a flash of green light, and Jacen bolted upright in bed.

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_Polstj_ _ä_ _rnan Starliner_ Olympic _– Enroute to Hapes Cluster_

Throwing off the covers, Jacen grabbed a fizzade from the ‘fridge in the cabin and took a long drink. This was the third time now that he had had that dream, and Jacen felt more and more helpless every time he had it. Grimacing, he forced himself to walk around the small cabin in an effort to relax. 

After a few minutes, Jacen found himself looking out of the cabin’s porthole window, re-thinking his Plan _Aurek_. Sighing to himself, he was forced to admit that the cornerstone principle of his plan relied on the Queen Mother keeping more or less to her usual routine, but that could not be helped. Any inquiries as to what her plans were for the next couple of days would only raise suspicions, and he knew from experience that a suspicious Tenel Ka was a tenacious Tenel Ka. If Jacen roused her suspicions, he would have to wait weeks for a new opportunity, and he was not sure he could muster the courage for a second attempt.

Jacen glanced at the chrono by the bed and saw that it was after 0400. Nodding to himself, he decided that it was probably safe to go get something to eat. If the passengers on the _Olympic_ acted anything like they did on Coruscant, he knew that even the most ardent partygoers run out of steam about 0330 and would start turning in. Getting up, he stuck his head out the cabin door and noted that the hallway was silent as a tomb. Chuckling humorlessly at his prediction, he closed the door and headed forward to try to find something to eat.

_Apparently even luxury liners close down most of the restaurants during the late hours,_ Jacen mused. His only two options were a bistro in ‘coach’ and a ‘first class’ lounge. Not wanting to mingle with any partygoers who might be still in the lounge, he opted for the bistro. After finding it, he noticed, unsurprisingly, that it was not very busy; the clientele included a handful of staff members on a meal-break, and a young Bothan couple who Jacen guessed were on their honeymoon, given the way that they were blatantly ignoring everyone else. Jacen smiled slightly at the pair as he followed a young waiter to a booth in the corner.

“Something to drink?” The waiter asked as Jacen sat down.

Nodding, Jacen answered, “Chai, if you have it.” The young man nodded and left to make a cup of the flavored tea.

After taking a quick look at the menu, he put it at the edge of the table, shaking his head as to why he bothered to look—coming into the place, he had already decided on an omelet. If his years traveling around the galaxy taught him anything, it was this: it is pretty hard to ruin eggs.

As Jacen took the cup of chai from the waiter upon his return, he ordered a ham, cheese, and green pepper omelet. The younger man gave Jacen a bored look over his flimsi, “Hash browns?” 

“Sure.” Jacen answered as he handed the menu back to the waiter.

“Loaded?” Seeing Jacen’s confused look, the waiter tried again, “The hash browns, would you like them loaded?” Jacen still had _no_ idea what he was talking about, and it must have showed on his face. With an exasperated sigh, the young man tried a third time, “Onions, cheese, gravy. Loaded hash browns.”

Jacen gave a half-shrug, “Why not. I’ll spend some extra time on the treadmill.” Shooting Jacen a _whatever you say, buddy_ look, the waiter turned and left.

Shrugging off the waiter’s demeanor, Jacen turned his attention to his data pad, pulling up a holozine article about the Battle of Vrogas Vos. He became engrossed in the author’s hypothesis that the Empire hadn’t really _won_ that milestone battle, more that the Alliance had _lost_ it due to arrogance and poor tactics. So engrossed, in fact, he failed to notice as a tall brunette walked up to his table. 

“Would you care for some company?”

Startled, Jacen looked up from his data pad and chuckled humorlessly when he saw the Hapan Naval Ensign from the check-in line, now dressed in a red halter top and form-fitting white pants, a wry smile on her face.

“Sure.” Jacen answered good-naturedly, gesturing to the seat across from him. As she sat down gracefully, “I give you high marks for persistence.”

The young woman smiled, and Jacen noticed the sparkle in her blue eyes. Unlike many Hapans, it seemed the naval officer now seated across from him did not lack a sense of humor. 

“Thanks!” Scowling, she continued, “Since you _ditched_ me at the counter,” Jacen smiled at her emphasis of the word, “I made it my mission to track you down to say, ‘Thank you.’”

Shrugging noncommittally, Jacen replied, “I was hoping to remain anonymous.”

The Hapan woman rolled her eyes, “So I gathered. Unfortunately for you, I like a challenge.” She looked over to her right, trying to catch the waiter’s attention. Seeing his nod of recognition, she turned her attention back to Jacen. “I figured that if it were me and I needed to hide from a pesky naval officer whom I had just upgraded to first-class, I would pick the slowest time of day and head to the restaurant in ‘coach’.”

Jacen hung his head as he fought the urge to laugh. Looking back up, he tilted his head, giving her a quizzical look, “You work for Fleet Intelligence, don’t you?”

The young woman gave a small snort of laughter and shook her head. “Nah, I hate doing paperwork. I’m just a lowly air traffic controller.” Seeing that the waiter had come by, she looked up at the young man and nodded her head at Jacen, “I’ll have what he’s having. Chai and all.”

Nodding in reply, the waiter jotted this down on his flimsi and returned to the kitchen. Shaking her head, she turned her attention back to Jacen and saw his disbelieving scowl. Shrugging, she explained, “I don’t smell any caf, so I assumed that you were drinking chai.” She looked at him expectantly and saw his smirk. “And I know all about the ‘chow hall rule’: when in doubt, order eggs.”

Jacen laughed, and the brunette woman smiled warmly, “See, that’s not so hard. It’s good to laugh, you know.”

Jacen only offered a polite nod at the irony: seventeen years ago, he tried his best to make a certain Hapan laugh; now it was another Hapan returning the favor. Oddly, she had more luck than he had had. “I guess I haven’t had much reason to laugh, lately.”

She tilted her head fractionally, “Sounds depressing.”

Jacen snorted, “You have no idea.”

The brunette held her well-manicured hand across the table, “I’m Kenara, by the way, Kenara Do’ma.”

Shaking her hand, “Jason Naberre. Pleasure to meet you.”

“Feeling’s mutual.” The brunette replied, leaning back as the waiter placed her cup of chai on the table. “So, what takes you to Hapes?”

Jacen fought a grimace as he looked down at his cup. Because he had not planned on socializing with anyone on the trip, he had not bothered to come up with answers to basic conversation. Not having any better story, he decided to run with Lando’s First Rule of cons: _If it doesn’t cost anything, tell the truth. Lies are too hard to remember._

Sighing, he replied softly, “I’m on my way to see my daughter and her mother.”

Kenara nodded understandingly, hearing the pain in his voice. “I’m sorry.” She replied, meaning it. Hapes was not an easy place to be a father; most of her friends had no contact whatsoever with their own fathers and were flabbergasted that her mother and father were actually married…of their own volition.

“What happened?” she asked, instantly regretting her question when she saw the pain flash across Jacen’s face. Shaking her head, “I’m sorry, it’s none of my business.”

“No, it’s okay. We just sort of…drifted apart.” Jacen replied softly and launched into the story of how he had met a girl at an Academy on some jungle planet; about how the two of them became fast friends, her serious demeanor the perfect foil for his whimsical one; how the two of them started becoming something more than just friends; about how the war forced them apart; about the joint-mission they both ended up on and about how they seamlessly melded together, even after more than a year apart; about how thoughts of her managed to keep him sane during his time as a POW. 

Kenara listened on as Jacen described how his friend was forced to take over the family business when her mother died, and about how her extended family disapproved of him as a boyfriend; he talked about his five-year sojurn and how he had hoped that if he learned enough, became ‘cultured’ enough, her family would approve of him. Kenara smiled as he recounted the tale of him ‘breaking in’ to her estate to surprise her upon his return and how they, once again, picked up where they had left off…managing to conceive a daughter during their reunion; about how, for a while, it looked that he might be able to come to Hapes and become a ‘real’ husband and father, but something always seemed to come up, either with her work or with his. ‘Next year’ became two, which became three and then four…always with more limitations, both real and imagined, about when he could visit, and she could hear the desperation in his voice. 

“Sorry.” He concluded sheepishly as their waiter finally delivered their breakfast, “It does sound like a bad holodrama, doesn’t it?”

Kenara smiled sadly, “Not at all. Pretty normal for Hapes, actually.” Taking a bite of her omelet, she continued, “How often are you able to visit?”

“Not as often as I’d like.” He paused slightly and she once again heard the pain in his voice, “In fact, this might be my last trip to Hapes.”

Kenara could only nod sadly. There were times, like now, when she did not much like the society she grew up in. Often, she found that it was too hierarchical, too demanding, too superficial, too….Hapan. In fairness, some of Hapes’s prosperity was due to their hierarchical way of doing things—she just wished that there were a way to ‘turn off’ the hierarchy in personal lives.

“Do you have a picture of your daughter?” She asked, more as a way to deflect some of her own sadness than anything.

Jacen looked up sharply, alarmed by the question. Seeing his look, Kenara leaned back in her chair and raised her hands in defense, “Whoa, sorry I asked.”

The GAG Colonel slumped in his chair, sensing through the Force that Kenara had no ulterior motives, and was simply trying to cheer him up. After all, he had been talking up his daughter and her mother for the last half an hour—clearly he still was fond of them, and it would be disingenuous to say that he did not have a holo. Disgusted with himself for being so defensive, he dug his wallet out of his pocket and pulled out a holodisk of his daughter, inwardly hoping that the Naval Ensign across from him was not a die-hard ‘Royal-watcher’. Besides, most five-year-olds look pretty much the same. Don’t they? Inwardly bracing himself, he thumbed the activation switch and the image of a red-haired girl with adorable curls wearing a pale-yellow sundress flashed above the table.

“Nah, I’m just being paranoid.” 

Ensign Do’ma immediately smiled at the image: the girl was caught in mid-twirl, a huge, infectious smile on her face, her grey eyes twinkling in delight, and Kenara could almost hear the squeal of laughter and the _Daddy, look at me!_ comment that surely came right before the holo was taken.Something about the girl seemed familiar, but Kenara just chalked it up to the fact that she was sitting across from the girl’s father.

“She looks like she has tons of energy.” Kenara commented, looking up from the holo.

Jacen grinned as he switched off the holo and pocketed the device, “You have no-o-o idea. She seems to have two speeds: on and off.” Shrugging nonchalantly as he took another bite of breakfast, “You’ll never guess whom she got that from.”

“I can only imagine.” Kenara deadpanned, rolling her eyes. Taking a sip of chai, she nodded at the datapad on the table, “What were you reading when I sneaked up on you?”

It was Jacen’s turn to roll his eyes, “An article about the Battle of Vrogas Vas. Turns out that Rieekan wasn’t as good as we thought.”

“Really?” Kenara replied, sounding surprisingly interested, “Do tell.” For the next hour or so, the two of them talked military tactics and history, each buoyed by the other’s enthusiasm.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those interested: Polstjärnan means 'North Star'. Sometimes it really is easier to open up to someone you don't know at all. 
> 
> Thanks for reading!


	5. End Game

_Fountain Palace – Chume’dan, Hapes_

Through a crack in the door, Jacen saw that Tenel Ka was indeed sticking with her usual Tuesday routine. For a few moments, he simply observed as she punched a speed bag. Even one-handed, she was fast enough to make the bag sound like a repeating blaster, the _rattatta-rattatta_ reverberating around the small gym. A fresh wave of depression washed over him and Jacen found himself fighting back tears as he watched the copper-haired queen get even faster on the bag. Briefly, he considered backing out of his plan and returning to Coruscant—maybe he could find a different solution to what needed to be done. _No, it has to be her_. Intellectually, he knew that she was the only one who would understand what he was trying to achieve; she alone would understand that this sacrifice was for the greater good—he could only hope that Allana would understand in time. 

Wiping his eyes, Jacen visibly stiffened and reached out cautiously through their Force link, a link that he could never break. As he lightly brushed her mind, Jacen almost recoiled at her frustration and anger—both directed at him – and had to physically fight the urge to rush in and give her a reassuring embrace; to tell her that he loved her and that everything would be okay. For the second time since he boarded the _Olympic_ , it occurred to him that only now did he find his humanity again: only at the end did he fully realize just how much he loved Tenel Ka Djo. For almost two decades, she had been the one constant in his life, the one thing that he could count on. And how had he repaid her friendship and love? Pain—nothing but endless pain. Shamelessly, he allowed the tears to come. On some level, he was glad that he could not do this without feeling remorse; it felt right to know that this _hurt_. Unconsciously, Jacen had backed away from the door, as if preparing to leave the Palace. Grimacing, he took a deep breath, took a step forward and pushed open the gym door.

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_Whump._ Over the sounds of the speed bag, Tenel Ka heard the door open and immediately tensed, knowing whom it was. _Jacen._ The Palace staff always announced themselves before entering, and it was much too early for either her father or Allana to be awake. Stopping the bag, she threw off her boxing glove and turned to face her friend. Time seemed to stop as Tenel Ka stared at Jacen. For the briefest of moments, upon seeing the face of a man who was not Jacen, Tenel Ka thought she was wrong—that this stranger was someone new to her staff. Jacen’s Force presence gave him away, however, and his new look only increased her sense of foreboding. Seeing his look of determination and the tear trickling down his face, Tenel Ka called her lightsaber to her hand. 

The last time he had visited, she could feel that something was amiss but could not bring herself to ask about it, telling herself that she would get better intelligence about the situation and _then_ confront him. Apparently, she had missed her chance: this strange man standing before her had destroyed the Jacen she loved. Horrified, she immediately grasped that this imposter could only be here for one of two reasons: either to convince her to join him, or to steal her daughter (not _their_ daughter—this man was _not_ Jacen.)

Tenel Ka found the first option repulsive and the second was beyond comprehension. Her heart breaking, she ignited her turquoise blade and launched herself at this facsimile of her best friend, swinging viciously at his left arm.

Surprised, Jacen managed to get his green blade ignited, raising it to block her blow--he had forgotten just how ridiculously fast Tenel Ka was. Growling at his block, his best friend leaned forward into his blade and swung the stump of her left arm, catching him across the face. Pirouetting, she kicked out with her left leg, catching Jacen in the sternum, launching him back a meter and crashing him against the door.

Wincing, Jacen slumped slightly against the door—he had heard the distinct ‘pop’ from his rib cage when she kicked him, and he realized that had _definitely_ forgotten how fast his Dathomiri friend really could be. With her spin kick, Tenel Ka had seized the initiative, and she quickly stepped forward to press her advantage. After three quick parries, they found themselves once again leaning into each other’s blades, Jacen’s back against the door. Needing more space to defend himself, more space to maneuver, he pushed out with the Force, earning a frustrated snarl from Tenel Ka as she skidded three meters into the center of the room. 

Holding his sabre in a one-handed _en garde_ position, Jacen allowed a small smirk as he slowly moved to his right, circling his friend. Carefully, hoping that she would be too preoccupied to notice, he again reached out through their Force-link and sent her even more strength and fed her fury. Jacen had to be careful, his plan relied on her not being able to see his real goal until it was too late.

Glaring at the imposter circling her like a predator, the red-haired Queen became incensed when she saw his smirk. She used that anger to launch herself at him, feinting another blow at his left arm before countering with a complex attack of three moves, the last of which Jacen could not quite get out of the way, earning a cut across his right arm. Tenel Ka’s anger towards Master Skywalker and his ridiculous ultimatum inspired another complex four-stroke riposte that raked Jacen across the abdomen, drawing more blood. Long pent-up anger at her dead grandmother resulted in a two-pronged attack and another spin kick that Jacen did not see coming. Hearing another of his ribs crack, the Queen mother felt giddy. ~~~~

Now, it was her turn to smirk as she continued to land kicks, blows with her left arm, and even a head-butt, all while assaulting him with her lightsaber. Combat skills that she thought dormant jumped to the fore as she wailed away on her former friend, Jacen barely able to keep up with her onslaught. Tenel Ka’s frustration and anger at his actions over the last few months made her want to inflict as much bodily harm to him as she could, and she became a torrent of parries, thrusts, and kicks.

 _This is for trying to make me laugh._ Jacen was not quite quick enough to leap back from a well-disguised parry that gashed his left thigh. _This is for allowing me to kiss you._ Again, Jacen was a shade late to react, resulting in another gash on the left arm, this time on his bicep. _For falling at Cloud City_. Tenel Ka fired off another three-stroke attack that Jacen managed to anticipate, butfail **i** ng to recognize it as a feint, received a knee to the groin from which he only partially twisted away. Hearing his grunt of obvious pain, she grinned and felt ecstatic.

 _For getting captured._ She used his block as a pivot and smashed the pommel of her lightsaber into his left cheek, feeling the bone give way. _For leaving me alone on this stupid planet._ Tenel Ka attacked low to his right hip and again used his block as a pivot, crashing her sabre-handle into his left hand, cackling haughtily at the sound of breaking phalanges. 

Screaming like a banshee, the Queen Mother launched a final crescendo of speed and violence. _This is for chopping off my arm._ Hiding behind a vicious smirk, her grey eyes burning with raw power, she launched a five-stroke attack **.** With a flick of her wrist, Jacen’s lightsaber flew across the room, half of his hand still attached, shutting down with a _hiss-snap_ and landing with a sickening ‘thump’ against the far wall. Spinning her lightsaber like a baton, she looked into his face and made a final swing. _And **this** is for letting me fall in love with you._

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Growing up, Jacen had heard stories about the fighting ability of Dathomiri women from his uncle, but he had just assumed it to be hyperbole. Now, seeing Tenel Ka in full battle mode for the first time, he had to admit that she was _scary_. Back when he taught lightsaber classes at the Jedi Academy, students always asked who he thought the best swordsman of the Order: Jacen would smile and say diplomatically that Luke Skywalker was the best since Windu. Apparently, he had lied to his students; the Hapan Queen Mother was far and away the best swordsman he had ever faced. 

Jacen had long prided himself on being able to tolerate more pain than anyone else alive, but nothing had prepared him for the type of pain he now felt. Through his link with Tenel Ka, he saw the images she used to fuel her anger. The memory of her ‘surprised now?’ kiss on Yavin, the memory of her rushing eagerly toward him when he had returned to Cloud City; these were two of his most favorite memories, and she was using them as a weapon. The woman he had loved since he was thirteen _hated_ him. Worn down from all of the cuts and broken bones, from the incredible speed of her attacks, and from the certainty that he no longer meant anything to her, Jacen could no longer keep up with her onslaught. With a flash of pain, he saw half of his right-hand fly against the wall, his fate sealed. Bravely, unashamed to be overcome by grief, he looked into her eyes one final time and tilted his head away from her oncoming blade. 

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Tenel Ka stopped her swing centimeters from Jacen’s neck, noticing for the first time since their encounter began that his eyes were…brown. Not that sickly yellowish-brown that they had been the last few times he had visited, but brown… _her_ brown. For a long moment she lost herself in her favorite color, the only sound being the hum of her lightsaber.

Jacen tilted his neck closer to her blade and could feel the skin start to blister.

“Do it.” He whispered and saw the shock in her granite eyes at what had just transpired and realized he was out of time; if she did not act now, she never would. He again moved fractionally closer to the turquoise blade, pain ripping down his being. “Please.” 

Tenel Ka continued to stare into his eyes, the full impact of what she had done to her friend becoming apparent. He was bleeding from several cuts on his face, his nose broken, and his left eye was swollen shut. Additionally, he was clearly favoring his right leg, his left hand was almost twice the size of normal, and his right hand ended with a cauterized stump. Horrified at her actions, she closed down her lightsaber, hooking it to her stretch pants.

“No.” she replied quietly, “I have taken your part of your hand; that is enough.”

Reaching out cautiously through their link, she let out a small gasp when she felt how much pain he was in; physical pain, yes, but mostly emotional pain. Anguish that he had hurt her, anguish that he had let her down, and the intense heartache that could only come from love. Understanding dawned on her face as she realized what he had been doing. He _wanted_ her to hurt him; he _needed_ her to hurt him. _He_ was the reason that she had felt invincible. He had fed her frustration, turned it into a blinding rage, and she had welcomed it. She _relished_ the feeling of power that it had given her and was afraid of what that meant.

As her eyes searched his, she whispered, “Why, Jacen?”

His eyes fell as he answered quietly, “I deserved it.” Plan _Aurek_ had failed, but he knew that it only had a limited chance at success; Tenel Ka was much too forgiving. _Time for Plan Besh._ As he felt her reach out with the Force, he flooded their link with memories: Memories of what had happened on that asteroid near Bimmiel, images of what he had done while flying with his sister, the memory what had happened while he was interrogating Mirta. He showed her the vision of Luke that he had seen before he killed Nelani; he showed her the vision of someone, probably himself, whispering ‘Mine!’ the last time he came to Hapes; he showed her visions of a dark man sitting on a throne. 

She tried to withdraw, but he literally grabbed her Force presence and showed visions of the galaxy burning, of chaos, of Allana joining the Sith. Showing her his ‘Plans _Besh_ , _Cresh_ , and _Dorn_ ’, he let her know what he was doing in her Palace at this early hour. For the good of the galaxy and the safety of Allana, Jacen Solo _had_ to die.

Finally, he let her go, adding in a flat, emotionless voice, “This is what I see. This is what I’ve become.”

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Tenel Ka regarded her best friend for a long moment, reeling at what Jacen had showed her. When they were younger, all he had ever wanted was a better understanding of all the varied assets of the Force, and how had the Force repaid that curiosity? With despair and pain. The Force had taken the sweetest, most compassionate person she was ever likely to know and turned him into a bitter, jaded shell of a person, a person that was begging her to destroy him. For the first time ever, she found herself _hating_ the Force, and wished that she had listened to her grandmother all those years ago and remained ignorant about the ways of the Jedi.

Jacen took a step forward and tried to take her hand, wincing as he did so. She had broken at least three of his fingers, and with all of the swelling it was almost impossible to make a fist. Recognizing his effort, Tenel Ka gently took his hand and started a modest healing effort to reduce the swelling in his remaining hand. 

He quickly gave her a smile of gratitude and tried to explain his plan, “I misinterpreted my vision on that damned asteroid.” Closing his eyes, he let out a pained sigh, “I’ve come to believe that the Force was telling me that _I_ was the reason Uncle Luke would die, not Nelani.” Raw despair now filled his voice, “I killed an innocent person because I chose not to believe what I saw.”

Tenel Ka could only answer with a small nod. “Why did you not tell me earlier?” More than anything else, the fact that he did not trust her with his visions hurt deeply. He was the only one outside of her father whom she trusted implicitly, and it hurt to know that he did not trust her fully as well.

Jacen’s head fell in shame. Looking back up at her face, “I should have. I guess I thought that you would not understand.” He paused and looked at her earnestly, “You mean the world to me, you know.”

The Queen Mother nodded, “I know.” She cocked her head, “I could never hate you, Jacen. I have loved you for far too long.” Seeing his face light up slightly, she continued, “This Plan _Besh_ : Will it work?”

Jacen tilted his head in response. “It should.” He paused and closed his eyes, clearly going over the plan in his mind. Tenel Ka did the same **,** trying to ascertain the plausibility of this plan. She scrunched her nose; all she could feel from the future was more loneliness. Perhaps her present was influencing her future. Opening her eyes, she started to voice her concern but saw his goofy smile. 

“The theory is sound, but this has never been done before.” He commented optimistically.

“Fact.” Tenel Ka had spent years trying to rid herself of her speech habits, but she always seemed to fall back into her old ways when she was around him. Her eyes sparkled when she heard his chuckle; it had been far too long since she had heard him laugh. Her face turned serious, “Are you ready?”

Jacen shrugged, “No.” He struggled to dig out a comlink out of his pants pocket and then held up his left arm as she removed her ‘saber from her waistband and once again ignited the turquoise blade, the _snap-hiss_ sounding painfully loud in his ears. “But I doubt that waiting will make this any easier.”

Tenel Ka shook her head and pointed at his right arm with her ‘sabre, “Other arm please.” She left unsaid the reasons why: she wanted to feel his caress from a real hand, she wanted Allana to have a real hand to hold on to as they crossed the street, she wanted to feel his real hand run down her back while they made love. Jacen seemed to understand all of this and swapped arms, angling his body to give her the best angle on his outstretched right arm. 

Looking into his eyes, “This will hurt.”

“I know.” He nodded to her left arm, “It has for years.” 

Closing his eyes again, he stretched out through the Force and found his ship, the _Solo Journey._ He pressed the ‘Call’ button on his comlink and… nothing. Even with faster than light technology, it still takes time for a signal to travel from Hapes to Coruscant. Finally, after several agonizing moments, Jacen felt his ship explode. Not wanting to open his eyes, he reached out for Tenel Ka and found her presence right there with him, waiting. Knowing that he would never be able to do so again, he poured every ounce of love he felt for her into their bond and felt her do the same. 

Taking a deep breath, he sent further reassurances to his Queen and commanded quietly, “Now.”

Tenel Ka sent even more love through their link and Jacen heard her lightsaber move through the air and then a sickening ‘thump’ as his right arm hit the ground. Just as with the destruct signal, it took a few moments for events to catch up with his perception. Suddenly, pain like he had never felt before surged up his arm. His last thought before being overcome by darkness was: _Tenel Ka is right, this_ does _hurt_. 

|

O

_____(___)_____

O O

Tenel Ka saw everything happen in slow motion; swinging her lightsaber, watching it cut through his right arm just below the elbow, the sickening ‘thud’ as his arm hit the ground. In that split-second, she realized that she had now heard that sound three times in her lifetime, including twice in the last ten minutes, and it was a sound that she never wished to hear again. She closed down her ‘saber immediately after it had cut through Jacen’s arm and time seemed to resume its regular pace as Jacen let out a low, agonizing scream. Suddenly, she felt his presence explode in a massive Force fireball and then just as quickly _implode_ on itself, as if Jacen had become the center of a black hole. 

The Queen Mother gasped as her breath left her, the pain was like nothing she had ever experienced before, not even when she felt Jacen ‘die’ all those years ago; it felt as if someone had reached into her chest, grabbed her soul and ripped it from her body. Still struggling for breath, she saw Jacen’s knees buckle and watched horrified as he started to topple over. Somehow, she moved to catch him and slowly lowered him to the floor, laying him on his back. Checking for a pulse, she breathed a quick sigh of relief; it was weak, but steady. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was actually the first chapter I had written for this story. Originally, it was going to be part of a larger story I'd written earlier, but it didn't fit in that story. However, I liked the pacing in this chapter and wanted to explore a way in which Jacen and Tenel Ka had gotten to the point where they were fighting each other. Thanks for reading!


	6. Hidden Costs

_Dubrillion_

As she walked down the well-travelled thoroughfare in one Dubrillion’s underwater cities with her husband, Leia expanded her Force presence as far as she dared, only half-listening to Han’s recount of his last conversation with Lando. “…could do is a regular room, but I told him that anything will be an improvement over where we stayed last night.” She caught his famous smirk and nodded absently in reply, still thinking about the vague sense of unease that she was getting. Suddenly, in a flash of intense pain, her worst fears became reality.

It took Han a couple of steps to realize that his wife was no longer walking beside him. Confused, he turned and found her slumped against a lamppost, doubled over in clear agony, gasping for breath. 

“Leia!” He rushed to her side, “Leia, what’s…” he stopped when she looked up at him, her face a grotesque mask of pain. He had seen that look once before, and it was a look that he had hoped that he would never see again. Han’s heart stopped as he enveloped his wife in an embrace. “Jacen?” He whispered and felt her nod against his shoulder, her tears soaking into his shirt. He closed his eyes, and quietly cursed fate as he wondered sadly what he had done to deserve such a life. His best friend, both of his sons…what more did Han have left to give? 

It was unclear just how long they had remained like that; the two of them alone in their sea of despair, when Han became aware of the incessant vibrating of his comlink. Before he could stop himself, he answered the call, “Solo.”

Leia stiffened against him as they heard her brother’s voice sound over the small speaker, “Han, I’m…”

“DO NOT. Finish. That. Sentence.” Han growled into the comlink, interrupting his brother-in-law. “You are most definitely NOT sorry. At looks as though you got your wish. My son can no longer make you look incompetent.”

They heard Luke sigh into the speaker, “You think that this is what I…”

Again, Han interrupted, “Yes. We know that you wanted to ‘stop Jacen’.” His voice rose to a shout, “Leave us alone!”

A new, feminine voice sounded over the speaker, “Han, he’s arresting Corellians.”

Han let out a sad sigh, “Yeah.” He and Leia had argued on and off about Jacen’s actions as head of the Galactic Alliance Guard for the better part of two months. He could not believe that his son would think that rounding up Corellians, people from his homeland, was a good idea. Leia consistently argued that while she was _not_ in favor of the ‘detention camps’, nobody else had proposed any better ideas. Part of the reason Han was so upset at his son was that Leia was right: no one, including himself, _had_ offered a better solution. No one, it seemed, had been acting rationally over the last few months.

Mara chided in a haughty tone, “So, now _you’re_ making excuses for him?”

Leia snatched the comlink from her husband’s hand, “How DARE you, Mara Jade. Jacen was enforcing the law, which is something that the Order has NOT been doing. While you were busy subverting the authority of the Chief-of-State, _my_ son was trying to keep Coruscant from exploding.” In her rage, Leia started to shake, “My sons are DEAD. They’re dead while you two continue to debate what the role of _your_ Order should be. I expected more from the Emperor’s Hand.” She paused to let that sink in. “Don’t call us again.” With that, Leia threw the comlink with all of her might against the brick wall on the other side of the sidewalk and gave a satisfied nod as it broke apart with a small ‘crack’ and fell to the ground. 

Han could only stare at the remains of his comlink as Leia stormed off up the sidewalk. Shaking his head, he hurried after her, catching up in a few long strides. Just as he caught up, she stopped and spun around, her lovely face still clouded with pain and anger. “I _hate_ him. I hate them both.”

Han drew into another hug and shook his head, saying gently, “No, you don’t.”

She backed up a step and glared at her husband. “YES. I. DO. Luke sits and does _nothing_ while the galaxy goes to hell, and then has the audacity to berate people who actually are _doing_ something.” Gesturing wildly with her right hand, she allowed her voice to get louder, “There is a war coming, and what are _his_ Jedi doing?” Her voice fell in disgust, “Nothing. Not one _damned_ thing.” 

Han saw a new fire in her beautiful eyes, and he knew that he was in for a wild ride. She stabbed him in the chest with her right index finger, “You helped start this mess with your support of the Corellians. You and I are going to try to stop it.” Her voice fell to a whisper and Han could barely hear her over the traffic, “I owe it to Jacen to do what he could not.” 

T

_________|_________

O O(___)O O

_Fountain Palace, Chume'dan, Hapes_

Looking about her gym, Tenel Ka found an exercise mat against one wall and called it to her hand. After rolling it into a pillow, she placed it under Jacen’s head and then looked for a first-aid kit. Finding one by the door, she again used the Force to call it to her and dug out some bandages. There is a common misconception that lightsaber wounds are clean wounds and never bleed. This is untrue; Jacen’s wound had had some cauterization, but the human arm simply has too many veins and arteries to cauterize them all with one swing of a lightsaber. As a result, Jacen was bleeding—not a lot, perhaps, but enough to be concerning. Finding what she was looking for, Tenel Ka tightly wrapped a pressure bandage around Jacen’s right bicep, staunching the flow of blood. That done, she went about placing a dressing and bandage over the wound, trying not to look at the bone in what remained of his arm.

Only after the Queen performed the necessary first aid did the full impact of what he had done dawn on her. Sitting next to his prone form, she stroked his cheek, grimacing as she felt the bone give way under her fingers. For all intents and purposes, Jacen Solo was _dead_ ; and it saddened her to know that she would never be able to tell everyone just how incredibly brave he had been. He had saved them all, and no one was ever going to know.

As she looked at her best friend’s face, she realized that she would never again feel his reassuring presence in her mind, never feel him be _part_ of her. Jacen would not be able to show Allana how to levitate her stuffed tauntaun, or teach her any of the esoteric tricks he had learned while traveling the galaxy. While she would miss these things, her and Allana would still have Jacen, and that meant more. Tenel Ka kissed her Jacen’s forehead and did something she had not done in quite a while: smile. _We will just have to make the best of the time we have_.

She was so caught up in her thoughts that she almost missed the sound of bare feet running at breakneck speed down the hallway towards the gym. _Allana_. Neither she nor Jacen had stopped to consider how this would affect their daughter. Reaching out, she could feel the sense of panic boiling out of her little girl and tried her best to soothe her frantic thoughts. Looking down at Jacen, she grimaced and slid his detached arm closer to his side, hoping to keep it from view.

Just as she finished, Allana rushed into the room, fear clearly etched onto her young face as her words tumbled out of her mouth in a rush, “Mommy, something bad has happened to…” Allana’s grey eyes widened in horror when she saw Jacen’s prone form, “…DADDY!” she shrieked, rushing forward.

Tenel Ka lunged at Allana catching her in a tight embrace that lifted her off the floor before she could reach her father. 

“Shh…it’s okay.” She whispered, trying to soothe her struggling daughter, “Look, he’s still breathing.” Allana stopped trying to escape and looked at her father’s chest and watched as it rose and fell rhythmically.

Melting into her mother, Allana never took her eyes off of Jacen as her mother stroked her hair. Quietly, she asked, “What happened to Daddy?” Turning her head to look her mother in the eye, “Was it an accident like yours?”

Tenel Ka held her daughter close and rested her chin on the top of Allana’s head. Despite their best efforts, Allana had figured out who her father was and had probably done so quite a while ago. 

Feeling a wave of guilt wash over her, she closed her eyes and shook her head, “No, honey. Jedi Ja…” she stopped and corrected herself, “…Daddy needed me to help him.” Relaxing her embrace, she knelt down to place Allana back on the floor and looked her daughter in the eye to try to explain. “Jacen wants to spend more of his time here on Hapes, but he needed me to help him from becoming a bad man.”

Allana scowled at her mother. Jacen had always been very nice to her, and she could feel his love for her every time he visited; she could not believe her Daddy was anything but nice. 

Timidly, as if she were afraid of the answer, she asked quietly, “Was he a bad man?”

The Queen Mother shook her head adamantly, “No, sweetie.” She kissed Allana’s forehead, “He cut himself off from the Force before that could happen. It was a very brave thing to do.”

Allana nodded absently, not really understanding what her mother meant. Was not the Force part of who you were? Daddy had always said that it was. And if he had cut himself out of the Force, how come she could still _feel_ Daddy? Maybe she was just imagining it, the way that she imagined her stuffed tauntaun could talk. She would have to ask Daddy about it when he woke up; he would know…Daddy knew everything.

Looking up at her mother, “Can Daddy stay with us now?”

Tenel Ka gave Allana a small smile, “Not right away, but he will soon.”

The Chume’da of Hapes nodded again and knelt next to her father. Kissing his forehead, she whispered, “I love you, daddy.”

T

_________|_________

O O(___)O O

Jacen awoke to a darkened room, the only light being the ambient city lights filtering in through the partially closed blinds in the room. Scowling, he took a closer look out the window; the light was much too bright and artificial to be Hapes. _How’d I get to Coruscant?_ The thought jumped into his mind, but he knew that it must be right, nowhere else had a nighttime glow like Coruscant. He looked around as he sat up on the bed, recognizing one of the posters on the wall. _Hey, I had a poster just like that._ He smiled at the memory of his favorite singer from his teenage years: Gorah Dibbon. She had only made four albums (naturally, he had them all), and it was her ‘girl-next-door’ persona that had always drawn him to her, earning him endless jibes from Jaina, Anakin, Zekk, and Tahiri. Oddly, Tenel Ka never had much to say about his crush on the pretty, brown-eyed, singer-songwriter. Pushing that thought away, he continued to look around the darkened room, and stopped, stunned. That _is_ his Gorah Dibbon poster; Jacen was in his old room on Coruscant. _That means I’m…_

“…Dreaming.” Answered a chuckling voice from the doorway. Jacen’s head snapped around to look at the source of the voice.

It took him a second to find his voice. Before him stood his brother, looking just as he did the day prior to them leaving for their Myrkr mission. Jacen frowned slightly; he had forgotten how tall his brother had been. “Anakin?” 

Anakin smiled a warm brotherly smile, “Hi Jace. It’s been a while.”

Flopping back on the bed, Jacen sighed, “If I can see you, it means that everything I just did was for naught.”

Anakin stepped closer and shook his head, “No, it worked.” He gave Jacen the famous ‘Solo’ smirk, “Mostly. I’m just a…residual benefit, I guess you could call me.”

Turning his head to face his brother, Jacen wrinkled his brow, “Residual?”

Anakin answered with a non-committal shrug—the same shrug they had seen their father do a thousand lifetimes ago. “We’re all curious… how’d you do it?”

His younger brother’s question certainly piqued Jacen’s curiosity, “We?”

The younger man offered a wry smile and nodded as he answered, “We.”

Jacen was hoping that his brother would elaborate, but Anakin only continued to look expectantly at him. Sighing, he finally got up off of the bed and walked over to the window, gazing out over the pre-war Coruscanti nightscape. 

Looking over his shoulder, “I took all of the pain and anger coming from Tenel Ka and stored it in a sort of Force…” He paused, not sure what to call it. Suddenly, Anakin’s propensity for fiddling with electronics jumped into his memory. “…capacitor, I guess.” He glanced at his brother and saw the understanding nod. “Losing my arm was the trigger mechanism I used to release all of the energy from this ‘capacitor’ to expand both my Force presence and my ‘Vong’ sense at the same time.” Anakin opened his mouth to reply, but Jacen pressed on, turning back to the window, “It worked as I thought it would; the two ‘short-circuited’ each other and sort of…blew a fuse.” He took a deep breath and said quietly, “At least Dad won’t be the only non-Force user in the family anymore.”

Anakin whistled appreciatively, “Sounds painful.” Seeing Jacen’s single nod, Anakin continued, awe still in his voice, “Qui-Gon will be impressed.”

Jacen said nothing as he turned to stare dumbly at his brother; unsure as to whether he should be honored or not about being able to impress Qui-Gon Jinn.

Anakin could sense his brother’s inner turmoil and chuckled. “You’d like him…reminds me a lot of you, actually. He, too, is always trying to learn more about the different aspects of the Force.” Anakin turned his attention to the view behind Jacen, his voice almost reverential, “Apparently, it was Qui-Gon who ‘discovered’ how to anchor ourselves to the Force after our deaths.” He looked back at Jacen, “His jokes are _loads_ better, though.”

Jacen smiled at his younger brother’s comment; even he had to admit, his jokes _were_ pretty lame. For a moment, neither of them said anything, both lost in memories of times long gone.

“It’s a pity I won’t be able to meet him.” Jacen finally admitted, saddened by the realization of the consequences of removing himself from the Force.

Anakin smirked again, “Don’t be too sure. ‘Always in motion the future is.’” Jacen rolled his eyes at his brother’s impersonation of Yoda. The youngest Solo looked at his brother earnestly, “Which brings me to why I’m here: your ‘Plan B’…” he shook his head sadly, “…won’t work.” He held up his hand to forestall Jacen’s reply. “There are too many holes in the back story for the person you’ve invented. Unfortunately for you, both the Palace Guard and the Hapan public have become rather fond of the Queen Mother.” Jacen nodded; he, too, had noticed the public’s growing affection for their Head of State, and her for them. Anakin continued, “While this is good for Hapes as a whole, it also means that both will view her new ‘bodyguard’ skeptically. They will view you as someone who is merely a ‘gold-digger’ preying on their poor Queen’s affections.” Anakin paused briefly, letting this information sink in. 

Quietly, he continued, “The press and the Palace Guard will find the inconsistencies in your story and they will coerce you to leave Hapes.” Anakin did not mention how this would be done, but he did not have to. Jacen understood that he would be exposed as a fraud and embarrass the Queen Mother. Once again, Jacen would hurt his best friend. Anakin looked sadly at his brother, “It’ll be some time before you will be able to see Allana again.”

Jacen sunk to the bed, running his fingers through his hair as he hung his head in defeat. The bodyguard character he created did have inconsistencies, but he had hoped to be able to steer the press away from looking too closely. He had hoped that Hapes would see that the Queen Mother was happy for the first time in years and that this would outweigh the holes in his personal history. Sighing, he mentally prepared himself for ‘Plan C’. He would not be able to spend time with Tenel Ka or Allana, but at least he would not hurt them any more. Fate, it seemed, had deemed it impossible for him to be able to spend his life with the two women he loved most.

Anakin stepped closer and leaned against the desk opposite Jacen’s bed. “No, don’t go to ‘Plan C’ just yet. There is another way.” He waited for Jacen to look up, a small sliver of hope in his eyes. “We have shown you a different path.”

Understanding dawned on Jacen’s face as he realized Anakin meant the dreams that he had the last three times he had fallen asleep. “That was you? I thought it was just a dream.”

Anakin snorted, “You should know better than that by now.” He shrugged again, “We needed to make sure you saw it more than once.”

The flicker of hope died in Jacen’s eyes. Defeated, he said quietly, “I _can’t_ Anakin. I killed an innocent person because of these Force visions. I’m not sure I trust the Force anymore.”

The youngest Solo nodded his head in understanding, “I’m not going to pretend to understand what the Force was trying to show you on that asteroid. None of us seem to be able to reach a consensus about it.” He looked at his older brother sympathetically, “However, this _will_ work.” He leaned forward to emphasize his words, “Trust the Force one more time. Trust _me_.” 

Jacen shook his head and opened his mouth to offer a rebuttal but stopped. He and his brother didn’t agree on how to use the Force, but this was different; this was about _trust_. Nodding once in agreement, Jacen again turned toward the window.

Anakin sighed and pursed his lips. “In an odd twist of fate, there actually was a ‘Jason Naberre’. He was born 10ABY on Commenor, the only child of Kayrin Naberre, a single teenage mother. His childhood was pretty normal, and his mother allowed him to join the Republic Marines at age 17. During the Coruscant campaign, Jason earned a Bronze Star for getting his squad out of a pretty dire situation.”

“After the war, he returned to Commenor to aid in the rebuilding effort. Jason spent three years tracking down old tax returns for the Commenor Revenue Service, mostly in an attempt to find missing persons. One day, he got into an argument with one of his coworkers and, in his rage, punched her, knocking out one of her teeth. Jason was fired immediately and became a bit of a recluse, bouncing around for about five years from town to town on Commenor, before moving to Coruscant a couple of years ago to open an Army surplus store. He was last seen leaving a ‘gentlebeings’ club about two weeks ago.”

With a flash of insight, Jacen understood. “He’s the ‘John Doe’ robbery victim we found in Sector 46.” Anakin nodded in reply. Jacen stood and started pacing around the room, unsure as to how to feel.

Anakin could only shake his head at his brother; Jacen always did think better when he was moving around. He reached into one of his cargo pockets and produced a holodisk, holding it out for his brother to take.

Jacen nodded at the disk, “What’s on that?”

“Naberre’s memories.” Anakin paused, “Well, not _his_ memories…it’s more like a third-person account of his life. Basically, this is a verifiable history for you to use as your new persona.”

For a long moment, Jacen stared at the proffered disk. He wanted _desperately_ to believe in Anakin’s plan, but his track history with following Force visions was pretty dreadful.

“This _will_ work, Jace.” Anakin paused and looked at his brother meaningfully, “Choose and act.”

Jacen snapped his gaze up to his brother’s face. Anakin had known about Vergere, of course, but he had died before the Fosh taught Jacen her most important lesson. If Anakin knew the quote…Jacen’s heart dropped into the pit of his stomach. 

“You know Vergere?” he asked quietly, never taking his eyes off his brother’s face.

Anakin nodded and Jacen collapsed onto the bed, his eyes full of despair. In the same quiet voice, “She’s not…” he trailed off, unable to finish his sentence.

Anakin shook his head slightly, “A Sith? No Jacen, she never was.”

Jacen’s head slumped forward as he bit into his left fist. Closing his eyes he took several ragged breaths, clearly trying to keep from crying. A quiet sob escaped his lips and he hid his face in his hands. “Damn. It!” he whispered, looking up at ceiling. 

“Dammit, Anakin.” He glanced over at his brother, his lip still quivering, “I believed _Lumiya_.” His brother could only offer a sad nod in answer.

Jacen leaned forward again, his face in his hands, “I _knew_ it wasn’t true. There were too many inconsistencies in what Lumiya told me.” Jacen took another ragged breath, “Vergere would _never_ be pigeon-holed like that.” Looking to his right at the cityscape out the window, Jacen wiped his eyes, disappointed in himself. He had been so desperate for approval that he ended up following the advice of a bitter, washed up, Sith Lord. “I _knew_. I knew it couldn’t be true, but I doubted myself… _again_.” Chuckling bitterly, his eyes red with unshed tears, he looked over at Anakin, “I tried so hard…” he choked back a sob, “I tried so hard to prove to everyone that I could do it. That it was possible to be Sith and _not_ be evil. I wanted to prove that we are _not_ defined by labels.” His face fell, ashamed at what he had done. Finally, he whispered the one admission that he had been hiding from himself for months, “I wanted Vergere to be proud of what I was trying to do.”

Anakin knelt in front of his brother, looking him in the eye. “She is.”

Whatever dam Jacen had built to keep his emotions in check collapsed and his chest heaved with sobs. “Sh...she can’t b..be.” His body convulsed, “I’ve d..done horrible things.”

Anakin leaned forward and gave his big brother a warm hug and felt Jacen collapse against his shoulder. For a long while, he simply let his brother cry onto his shoulder. 

Finally, Anakin explained quietly, “You’re the first person ever to say, ‘Enough! I’m not following this path anymore.’” He leaned back and Jacen sat more upright, “Plaegius couldn’t do it, Granddad couldn’t do it; even Uncle Luke couldn’t do it. If it hadn’t been for Mom, he would have become ‘Darth Luke’.” 

Anakin smiled as he heard a small chuckle from his brother. “You’re the only one that had the ability to look at yourself critically and realize you were only deluding yourself. All of us, Granddad, Vergere…me; we are all proud of what you did today.” He reached up and dried his brother’s eyes, “You proved that darkness doesn’t ‘always dominate your destiny’; that there is no ‘point-of-no-return’.”

Jacen only nodded as Anakin moved to sit beside him on the bed, each comfortable with the silence, content to simply be with each other. Finally, after ten minutes or so, Jacen looked over at his brother, “I’ve missed you, Anakin.”

Anakin grinned his infectious grin, “Me too.”

The eldest Solo son snorted as he shook his head in disbelief. “That’s what I get for being sentimental.” Anakin only shrugged. Jacen again glanced at his brother, and nodded towards the disk in Anakin’s left hand, “What’s the price of all of this help?”

The three of them: Jaina, Jacen, and Anakin, had spent _way_ too much time around smugglers as kids to know to be leery of free help. Smirking at the memories, Anakin held up three fingers, “Three things. One: be a good husband and a better Dad.” Jacen nodded in agreement. That was, after all, the whole reason he had working on this plan for the last month. “Two: find a peaceful way out of this current mess.”

Jacen narrowed his eyes in confusion, “How am I supposed to be able to do that? I’m _dead_ now, remember?”

His younger brother only shrugged noncommittally, “You’ll just have to be more creative.” Ignoring Jacen’s exasperated look, he continued, “Three: there are several Jedi out there who are rudderless and just drifting. Help them find their way.”

Jacen’s first thought went to Tahiri and he felt a new wave of guilt swept over him. He continued to think of Tahiri as his sister, but he and Jaina had been doing a lousy job of showing it. Still, Anakin’s phraseology gave him pause. “Several?”

Anakin only shook his head in reply, “You and Tenel Ka will figure it out.” Seeing Jacen’s exasperated look, he held out the disk again, a wry smile on his lips, “There’s a special ‘Force Ghost’ school that teaches us how to be vague.”

Frowning, Jacen reached for the disk, “Apparently.” 

As soon as he took the offered disk from his brother, it started to dissolve and a barrage of images, sounds, smells, and feelings bombarded Jacen’s mind as he ‘uploaded’ the majority of Jason Naberre’s life into his mind. 

Blinking his eyes rapidly, he blurted, “Whoa.” It was as Anakin had said: these weren’t Jason’s memories _per se_ , but it was like Jason Naberre had been followed around by a holo-film crew his entire life. After the process finished, Jacen had to shake his head to clear it. “That’ll take some getting used to.”

Anakin nodded before asking, “Who Jason’s first-grade teacher?”

Perplexed, Jacen looked over at his brother before finally catching on. “Oh. Hang on a second.” He searched the new ‘archive’ to find the right images. “Miss…Stormborn.”

“His first kiss?”

“Uh…Nandi Viscount.”

“Your first date?”

Jacen grinned, “The Hapan Zoo.”

Anakin smiled, “Good, you are able to keep your memories separate from his.”

Jacen only rolled his eyes at the test before turning contemplative. Looking at his brother again, his asked quietly, “Do you know what happened to Kayrin?”

Anakin shook his head as he rose off of the bed. “It doesn’t really work that way.” His tone was sad, and Jacen got the impression that his brother wished to be able to solve that problem, particularly with so many beings still unaccounted for. Shaking his head, “Anyway, we’ve found a couple of people who have memories of her in a camp on Muunilinst, but only from shortly after the planet fell. We can only guess as to what happened to her after that.” 

Somehow, Jacen sensed that his ‘visit’ with his brother was at a close. What do you say to someone when you know you will probably never see him again? He glanced over at his brother, hoping that he could articulate how much he missed him. Instead of blubbering on, he simply said quietly, “Thank you, Anakin.”

Anakin smiled, seeming to know what his older brother meant, and pulled him into a warm embrace. For a few long moments, they stayed that way, both not wanting to let go. 

Finally, Anakin stepped back and whispered, “Please tell Tahiri that....” He trailed off, not sure how to continue.

Jacen smiled in understanding, "I will." Anakin nodded in reply and made his way to the door.

“Wait.” Jacen called, remembering something from the beginning of their conversation, “You said it ‘mostly’ worked?”

Anakin turned, grinning once more, “You’ll see.” He turned and walked through the door, closing it behind him. “Oh, Jacen?” Anakin called as he stuck his head back around the door, “One more thing.” Suddenly, Anakin’s voice changed to that of a confused little girl, “I love you, daddy.” 

With that, the door clicked shut.

T

_________|_________

O O(___)O O

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Please let me know if you have a better idea for a summary...I'd like to get a bit more traffic on our story!


	7. Early morning re-runs

_Fountain Palace, Chume'dan, Hapes_

“I love you, daddy.”

Jacen woke with a start and was looking up at two sets of the loveliest grey eyes. As he carefully sat up, his daughter launched herself at him and embraced him in the tightest hug possible for a five-year-old. “Daddy!” 

Wincing with considerable pain, Jacen stroked his daughter’s hair as he let her feelings of relief that he was okay wash over him like a gentle rain. Suddenly, it dawned on him that he should not be able to _feel_ her relief; he should not be able to feel the Force at all. As he frowned in confusion, Allana’s feelings faded away and he shook his head; it must have been a figment of his imagination. Tenel Ka had told him once that she still felt things in her non-existent left hand, so he supposed that he would always feel ‘phantom’ Force impressions.

Tenel Ka saw his frown and assumed it to be in reaction to Allana’s reaction to his waking up. Smirking slightly, she gave him a ‘who did we think we were kidding’ shrug. “You did not tell me how big a toll this was going to take on you.”

Jacen rolled his eyes and answered drily, “How was I supposed to know?” Gently, he removed Allana’s arms from around his chest and turned her around, letting her remain on his lap. He truly appreciated the sentiment, but his ribs _really_ hurt; from what he could tell, it appeared that there were at least four of them that were cracked or broken. As Allana scooted back a bit so that she could put her head on his shoulder, he looked back at Tenel Ka. “How long was I out?”

The Queen Mother shook her head as she glanced at the chrono behind him, “Not very long. Two, three minutes maybe.”

He nodded absently as he thought about his conversation with Anakin; he was pretty sure that it lasted longer than just a couple of minutes. “Hmm…it felt longer.”

Now it was Tenel Ka’s turn to frown. _Why would he think that?_ She knew Jacen well enough to know when he was leaving something out. Before she could ask him about it, Allana blurted, “Mommy says that you can start living with us now.”

Jacen smiled and leaned forward to kiss her forehead. “Would you like that?” Allana nodded vigorously and he saw Tenel Ka try to suppress a smile. “Okay then, I will.” 

Grimacing, he looked back at Tenel Ka, “Unfortunately, Plan _Besh_ …”

“…Will not work.” she finished.

Jacen sighed dejectedly, “You knew?”

Nodding sadly, “I suspected.” Pausing slightly, she daintily wiped a tear from her right eye, “I figured that ‘Plan _Besh_ ’ would be the best deal I could get. I would rather have you here for a few months versus not at all.”

Jacen closed his eyes and nodded. Tenel Ka’s pragmatism was one of the things he loved most about her, and it is what made her such a great Queen. She always focused on what _could_ be done, not what she _wished_ could be done. Opening his eyes, he started, “We’ll have to try…”

“NO!” Her voice sounded like a thunderclap and her grey eyes flared with anger. Startled, Allana turned her head to look at her mother. She had never heard her mother raise her voice like that, not even the time Tenel Ka caught her playing with a ratty, old, eggshell necklace. Clearly embarrassed at her outburst, Tenel Ka quieted before continuing, “No. We are not doing ‘Plan _Cresh_ ’. I know that you hold her in high esteem, and I am glad that she is still your friend, but you are NOT going there without a chaperone.” Her eyes hardened once again, “If you want to see Danni Quee again, you will have to invite her here.” _Where I can keep an eye on her._ She left that part unsaid, but Jacen knew what she was getting at.

Jacen fought in vain to keep from smiling. Truth be told, he found her jealousy a bit endearing and was oddly flattered by the sentiment. Finally, he gave her a knowing smile, “That’s not what I was meant.” He watched as his Queen narrowed her eyes warily. “While I was…‘out’, I had a talk with Anakin.” Seeing Tenel Ka’s face scrunch in confusion, he continued quietly, “He showed me a way to make this work.”

When he had finished describing his visit with Anakin, and his dream from earlier, Tenel Ka gave him a perplexed look, “While I think it is great that you got to talk to your brother, how does you getting beat up by a street gang help us?”

He opened his mouth to reply and promptly closed it. _How_ does _this help?_ Anakin left out the most important part: how does it him get from that street in front of the bank to living with Tenel Ka here in the Palace? What would Anakin do? _Improvise._ Sadly, not Jacen’s strongest suit. He heard Tenel Ka’s dejected sigh and was about to concede that he had absolutely _no_ idea where to go from here when he spied the treadmill in the corner of the room. 

With a flash of insight, he looked back at his best friend. “Do you still go jogging around the city?”

Frowning, trying to decipher why he would ask about her exercise habits, she answered hesitantly. “Of course.”

A small smile crossed Jacen’s face as he nodded once in satisfaction, “Good. In a few minutes you’ll decide to go on a morning run outside the Palace and your route will just _happen_ to take you past the Commerce Guild Investment Bank _…”_

It was now Tenel Ka’s turn to nod as she caught on to the plan, “…where I will happen upon a street fight and a badly injured man.”

Gesturing toward her with his left hand, “Exactly.” His eyes sparkled mischievously as he continued, “Naturally, being the kind of monarch you are, you’ll want to visit this man in the hospital…”

“Naturally.” Tenel Ka could not keep the smile off her face, as they continued to talk through their plan. “Being the Queen that I am, I will want to invite him to dinner to offer an official apology…”

“Of course. When I arrive at the Palace, I will meet your adorable daughter…” Jacen replied, winking at Allana.

“…Over appetizers, we’ll start to swap stories…”

“…We’ll discover our shared love for classical music.” Jacen caught her unbelieving look and gave her an ‘I’m-making-this-up-as-we-go-along’ shrug. “I’ll ask you to accompany me to the symphony….” 

“…I will reciprocate by inviting you to a benefit gala…”

“…Next thing you know, we’re an _item_.” Jacen stopped there and for a long moment the two of them simply gave each other a knowing smile of restrained delight at their over-the-top plan.

Allana had been observing this whole exchange, her head moving back and forth like she was watching a _sphairistike_ match as she sat on her father’s lap. She had never seen her parents act so… _flirty_ towards one another and was not sure what to make of it. Scowling at their adolescent behavior, she looked at the two of them, “You guys are creepy.” 

Tenel Ka’s smile faded as Jacen chuckled at Allana’s comment and ruffled her hair. Her tone became almost fearful, “You do not think this is too contrived?”

Jacen shook his head, “That’s the thing: this is so unbelievable that it has to be true. No one _volunteers_ to have his hand whacked off.” Jacen heard her small snort of laughter as he continued, “The Queen Mother _never_ stumbles upon a mugging. Trust me: the more far-fetched a story is, the more likely it is to be true.”

Jacen craned his neck to check the chrono on the wall behind him: 05:35. He had twenty-odd minutes to make it to the bank and change the course of history. Grimacing in obvious pain, he gently placed Allana on the floor and struggled to his feet. Once upright, he staggered a bit and felt Tenel Ka’s hand on his left arm to steady him. 

Concern filled her voice as she asked, “Are you sure you can do this?” 

Fixing his friend a determined look, “This is our best chance.” He smiled grimly, “Pain is only temporary.” The Queen Mother could only nod as she watched him bend down to pick up his arm off of the floor. Allana gave him a disgusted look as he picked up the appendage like a stick. As he stood back up, he commented drily, “I should probably take this.”

Tenel Ka walked over to the far wall, picked up his severed hand, and gingerly pried his lightsaber out of its grip, hooking it into her pants next to hers. As she returned, she held his severed hand out to him. “This as well.” Jacen nodded as he readjusted his grip and could hold both of his former appendages like only so much firewood. Shaking his head at the macabre view he must present, he turned to leave. 

“Wait!” Tenel Ka called after him, rushing over to a cabinet and returning with a telescoping metal baton, “I will not have you go out without a weapon.” Leaning forward slightly, she gave him a deep kiss as she placed the baton in his pants pocket. “Good luck.” she whispered, “I will see you soon.”

Smirking his ‘Jacen’ smirk, he returned her kiss with one of his own. “You’d better.”

Allana watched her mother in fascination as Tenel Ka’s face scrunched a bit in concentration, clearly reaching out with the Force. Mommy was really strong, what was making it so hard? Deciding that she could help, Allana closed her eyes and reached out, finding Daddy almost immediately. If she could find Daddy so quickly, why couldn’t Mommy? She pushed the thought aside and looked for Mommy. Even with her rudimentary Force skills, Allana could sense the growing worry and frustration emanating from her mother about not being able to track Daddy very well. Allana, not sure if she could maintain a link with both Mommy _and_ Daddy, did the next best thing…grabbed Mommy’s hand, anchoring herself to her Mother and letting her link with Daddy flow through her. As soon as she did, she could feel Mommy’s relief as she squeezed her hand warmly.

As Jacen exited the Palace through an old maintenance tunnel, Tenel Ka was busy disabling the security systems while he transited through each section of the tunnels, making sure to re-engage them after he had exited the area. Unfortunately, the further away he got, the smaller his already tiny presence became and the tougher it was to keep up with his movements. She could feel a cold sweat start to drip between her shoulder blades as she poured more energy into the Force, realizing that if she lost him, she would not be able to disable the remaining systems at the correct time, putting their whole plan in jeopardy. Just when she was _really_ starting to worry, she felt her daughter’s small hand grab hers and suddenly she felt Jacen’s presence bloom into existence again, and she squeezed Allana’s hand in thanks. To be fair, Jacen’s presence was still faint; it felt like she was seeing Jacen through a camera lens smudged with petroleum jelly, but it was much better than what she could see on her own. Somewhere in her sub-conscious, she realized that this implied something important, but she did not have time to worry about it at the moment; Jacen was about to leave the Palace, and she needed to blank the six cameras on that side of the grounds. Disabling all six took much more concentration than she cared to admit, and when she felt him dash down block and hide in some shrubbery, she let out a deep breath of relief. She had done all she could, now he was on his own for a while. _Good luck, love._ It was odd in a way; she had never used such a term of affection before; only upon threat of losing him forever did she finally find the courage to admit to herself how much he meant to her.

Jacen left the Palace via the same route he used to get into it, relying on Tenel Ka’s abilities to track him and blank out the surveillance cameras as he passed. Even though she could not sense him through the bond they used to share, he knew that she would still be able to track him. Reaching the end of tunnel, he cautiously cracked the well-hidden door and slowly stuck his head out to take a look. There were no armed guards waiting, and he did not hear the telltale sounds of approaching sirens, so he had to assume that Tenel Ka managed to temporarily disable the security measures. Quickly, before he over-extended his friend’s abilities, he rushed across the street and hurried down half a block, trying to stay in the shadows, before hiding behind some thick shrubs. The former GAG Colonel smiled slightly as he imagined Tenel Ka’s relief that he was safely out of the palace. A slight frown crossed his face as he heard a faint _Good luck, love_ sound in his head _._ Jacen shook his head as he realized that he was _definitely_ imagining things; Tenel Ka would never use such a term of endearment.

Crouching in the shadows, he took several moments to get his bearings. Jacen did not want to admit in front of his daughter, but the events of the last twenty minutes had left him pretty drained and disoriented. Only the fear of failing two lovely ladies, combined with his inherent Solo stubbornness, was keeping him upright. After several confused moments, he finally regained his sense of direction and started off in the direction of the Commerce Guild Investment Bank _,_ trying to remain in the shadows as much as possible.

As Jacen limped along, he reflected on his conversation with his brother and why he was so easily duped by Lumiya. Maybe the other Jedi were right: maybe he _was_ arrogant. He had been keeping no one’s council but his own for the better part of a decade, and had come to believe that he was the only one who could solve the galaxy’s problems. He was not sure of when or how it happened, but some time ago Jacen Solo had crossed the line between self-confidence and arrogance. It was this arrogance that allowed Lumiya hook him with her plan, and it had almost cost him everything.

Wallowing in self-recrimination and guilt, Jacen lost himself in his thoughts and let his mind forget how much it hurt to move. Suddenly, he found himself standing in front of the Commerce Guild Investment Bank unable to recall actually walking (okay, limping) there. As he glanced up at the sign hoping to check the time with what he remembered from his vision, he thought he heard something and turned his attention again down the street only to find nothing moving. Shaking his head he looked back at the clock: _12°C_. A frown crossed his face until it flashed and displayed the current time: _5:58_. 

Jacen breathed a long sigh of relief as the sign above the bank changed to display the temperature again. Fighting the urge to roll his eyes, Jacen looked around, trying to figure out what to do for the next six minutes. Spying a bench on the far corner, he started limping in that direction when he felt a bone-jarring jolt and his world went black

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again for reading! Please let me know what you think.


	8. Running Scared

_Central Park District, Chume'dan, Hapes_

* * *

Sitting in the back of a cab, Kenara watched the city roll by as she thought about something Jason had said in passing a day earlier: ‘I had friends once. It was kinda nice.’ _Everyone_ had friends or family, didn’t they? It was as if he was admitting that he had driven everyone away on purpose. _Who does that?_ With a start, she realized that they had been stopped for a few moments and that the cabbie was looking at her expectantly. 

Embarrassed, Kenara smiled politely as she gathered her belongings and opened the door to the speeder, digging some cash out of her purse as she did so. She froze when she saw the face on one of the twenty-credit chits—the visage of the Queen Mother. Absently, she handed two twenty-credit chits to the cabbie as she continued to stare at the third one in her hand, mentally comparing her memory of a spinning little girl in a yellow sundress with the image in her hand. 

Without looking up, Kenara commented, “Keep it.”

Taken aback, the cabbie was clearly hesitant to accept a seventeen-credit tip. “You sure?”

Still fixating on the Queen Mother’s tiny portrait as if it would offer up answers, Kenara climbed out of the cab and waved nonchalantly, “It’s fine. Thanks for the ride.” 

The cabbie continued to look at her confusedly. “Are you okay, miss?”

Kenara finally looked up and smiled, “Yes, fine. Thank you.”

Still not quite believing her answers, the cabbie sighed in frustration and started to drive off. “If you say so. Have a good night.”

Kenara returned her attention to the chit in her hand. “Good night,” she whispered absently. There was no doubt about it, the picture of the little girl that Jason had showed her on the _Olympic_ definitely had more than a passing resemblance with the Queen Mother. This could mean many things, but only two seemed likely at first blush: One—Jason had illicitly gotten a picture of the Chume’da from somebody and was passing it off his daughter. Why, though? Why would someone go to such trouble to have a picture of a ‘pretend’ family? Two—Jason really was the princess’s father. Thinking back, Kenara remembered Jason’s obvious reluctance to share his picture with her; it was if she was prying his deepest secret from him. In hindsight, she could now recognize Jason’s change in demeanor once he agreed to show her the picture. He became more animated, friendlier, more…open. It was as if the weight of the world was lifted from his shoulders when he shared his secret; as if he wanted _someone_ to know that he loved his little girl with all his being. With this insight, it occurred to her that she, a lowly ensign in Her Majesty’s Navy, knew something that only a handful of other people in the entire galaxy knew: the identity of Princess Allana’s father.

After placing the money back into her handbag, she grabbed her luggage and headed up her sidewalk to her modest townhouse, still lost in thought about what this revelation meant. For starters, Kenara could not figure out how it could have happened. How does one of the most-watched women in the galaxy meet someone like Jason Naberre? The Queen was infamous for her reclusiveness, attending only the rare event—so when did the two of them meet? 

Furthermore, the Queen would know the furor that would arise if word leaked that her daughter turned out to be half-Coruscanti, so why did she take the risk? Tenel Ka was in her twenties when Allana was born, so Kenara had to assume that the little girl was planned. Still, though, why? There were dozens of Hapan nobles that were still shamelessly throwing themselves at the Queen, what did she see in Jason Naberre that was so special? Opening the door to her home, Kenara shook her head at sure obtuseness of entire situation. Was it love? While not much of a royal follower, she knew that the Queen Mother had not been romantically linked to anyone in years, not since…

Kenara stopped dead in her entryway as the truth slapped her across the face…the Queen had not been romantically linked to anyone since Jacen Solo _._

Hurriedly, the brunette Naval officer went to her kitchen counter and started a search for ‘Jacen Solo images’ on her computer terminal. Fortunately for her, Mr. Solo was famous enough that there were hundreds of images to choose from. Scrolling down to find more recent holos, she pulled one up from a few weeks prior. The GAG Colonel had attended a political fundraiser and looked quite dashing in his black tuxedo. Shaking her head at her appraisal, Kenara concentrated on his face. Jacen Solo had darker hair than Naberre’s, and his ears were slightly smaller, but there was no question his eyes were same color as Jason Naberre’s. Something was off, though; the ‘Jason’ she got to know over the last couple of days had more life in his eyes than this image of Jacen Solo. 

Frowning, she returned to the list and tried to find a holo of Jacen Solo with the same hint of mischief that she had seen. Scrolling through the multitude of images, she stopped suddenly. _There._ Oddly, it was another image of Jacen Solo dressed in a tuxedo. _He_ does _look dashing all dressed up._ Pushing the thought aside, she studied the image for a moment. The holo was cropped so that image was off-center, Jacen’s left arm at an angle, and just visible passing through the crook of his elbow was the deep blue satin glove of some lucky woman who remained off-frame. Forcing down her sudden jealousy at the unknown woman, Ensign Do’ma refocused on his eyes. Jacen was turned slightly away from the camera, clearly talking to whomever he was escorting, but there was no mistaking the sparkle of mirth in his eyes and the warm smile he was sharing with his lucky date. The same sparkle that she had seen onboard the _Olympic_. Kenara found herself smiling at the holo, smiling at his obvious zest for life. There was no question in her mind that Jacen Solo and Jason Naberre were the same person, and he had just sneaked on to Hapes. _Why?_

Kenara drummed her fingers on the countertop as she absently used this new picture as a baseline for another data search, trying to come up with an answer. Turning to lean against the counter, she thought back to their conversations and remembered that Jacen had admitted to seeing his daughter fairly regularly. The Princess was much too young to go out on her own, so the Queen obviously did not mind that he came to Hapes. If she did not mind him coming to see them, would not flying your own ship and landing at the Palace be more convenient? Something important was hovering just out of reach. Frustrated, Kenara headed up to get ready for bed, leaving her suitcase standing at the base of the stairs.

As Kenara brushed her teeth, Jacen’s comment: _This will probably be my last trip to Hapes_ echoed in her head. Even now, two days later, she could almost _feel_ the sadness in his voice. Thinking back, his obvious pain was more than simply not being able to see his daughter or the woman he loved, it was as if he knew something bad was going to… 

Kenara stopped in mid-brush, toothpaste dripping out of her mouth as a horrible thought occurred to her: Jacen was going to try to assassinate the Queen Mother. Her imagination ran wild as Jacen’s visage popped into her head, an ugly sneer on his face. _If I can’t have her, no one will._ He was a Jedi, so getting into the Palace unobserved would certainly be possible. Once he got to the Royal Apartments, it would not be that hard for Jacen to kill his former lover.

Kenara made a move for her comlink to call the authorities before stopping mid-turn. Something about this scenario just did not sound right: if half of the stories she had heard about the Queen’s fighting abilities were true, it was doubtful that even a Jedi could get into her chambers and murder the Queen without there being a huge scuffle, one that would bring every guard in the Palace to her room. Furthermore, when the two of them had spent an afternoon talking politics, he never seemed bitter about his ex, and was almost beaming with pride as to what the Queen had accomplished. More than anyone, Jacen would know what would happen in the power-vacuum that would result with the Queen’s death: Hapes would be thrown into chaos and possibly return to the barbaric policies of Ta’Chume. And what about the Chume’da? Would he kill her too? Kenara shook her head; his love for his daughter seemed authentic, as did his fondness for the Queen. Whatever Jacen had planned, it was _not_ regicide.

_Kidnapping?_ As she washed her face and wiped off the bathroom counter, she reflected on this. Once Jacen sneaked into the Palace, he could grab his daughter and steal one of the Queen’s ships to make a dash off. Making her way to bed, Kenara turned off the lights and climbed into the bed as she tried to run through various scenarios where this might work, each scenario becoming more outlandish and absurd. If she were a betting girl, she would place better-than-even odds on there being some sort of tracking device on the Princess, whether it be a bracelet, a barrette, or something sewn into her clothes. And where would they go? The Queen Mother was also a Jedi, and she owned the third-largest fleet in the galaxy; a galaxy that suddenly got much smaller if you were on the run from the _entire_ Hapan Navy. No, whatever he had planned was much simpler, something that did not require him to leave in a rush.

Kenara lie on her back staring at the ceiling, hoping in vain that her mind would stop racing enough for her to fall asleep. _This will probably be my last trip to Hapes._ Try as she might, Kenara could not get those words out of her head. The way he had said it had such finality to it: Jacen seemed to know that he would never come back to Hapes. She pursed her lips, as a strange thought occurred to her. Perhaps she was looking at his statement from the wrong angle; instead of meaning that he would never come to Hapes again, what if Jacen meant that he would never _leave_ Hapes again? From the way he talked about his ex, and the way he talked about his daughter, that should bring nothing but joy to Mr. Solo. For him to sound as depressed as he did meant…

Kenara jerked upright, covering her mouth with her hand. Jacen had no plans to leave Hapes because he fully planned on dying here. A small gasp escaped her lips as she caught on to Jacen’s plan. He was going to see his daughter and his friend one more time and then he was going to end his existence. 

Leaping out of bed, she flipped on the lights as she almost ran into her closet, quickly grabbing a pair of stretch pants, an old t-shirt, and a pair of running shoes. Kenara was in such a hurry that it did not occur to her that rushing to the Fountain Palace at 0530, with only a vague plan on how to tell the Queen that Jacen Solo was planning on committing suicide, was probably _not_ the best idea. Rushing down the stairs, she grabbed her wallet off the kitchen counter and turned to leave, freezing as she caught an image on her computer screen. 

Turning back to take a closer look, she saw that it was the same picture of ‘chipper’ Jacen that she had seen earlier, but this time the image was not cropped. On his left, her arm intertwined with his, was the Queen Mother dressed in a stunning blue satin gown, a small smile on her lovely face. While some part of her mind was processing that they _did_ make a lovely couple, Kenara focused more on their eyes. They were sharing the same look that she had seen her mother and father share on many occasions, a look that she hoped to be lucky enough to share with someone: the look of undying affection. It was not the lovey-dovey look that she had seen some of her friends give their boyfriends, this look was deeper, more connected, more…understanding. Checking the time stamp, she saw that the picture was taken around three years ago. Thinking back, she vaguely remembered hearing some hubbub in the press at about that time that the Queen was _dating_. The excitement soon died off when the ‘striking couple’ had only been seen together at two events. _What happened?_ Hapes happened; political pressure had sent the two of them underground like two lovers from a bad holodrama. Slamming the computer shut, Kenara Do’ma turned to leave in a huff; she was tired of seeing Hapan culture chew up otherwise loving relationships. Kenara would not allow her Queen to be forever alone like her three aunts were, like both her grandmothers were. Not if she could help it.

So focused on her new crusade, it was only after her front door clicked closed did she realize that the keys to her speeder were still on the kitchen counter next to the computer _and_ right next to her house keys. _Crap._ Her parents had a key, but lived out in the country. The young ensign started jogging, her mind made up; she would call her parents _after_ talking to the Queen Mother. Hanging her head, she realized that her trip to the palace was now going to take a bit longer. Luckily, it was only five kilometers or so to the Palace from her condominium, and she could run with the best of them. 

After a couple blocks, Kenara became lost in thought about how best to convince the Palace Guard to let her talk to the Queen. So lost, in fact, that she almost missed a muffled, yet unmistakable, sound of a breaking window. Stopping mid-stride, the young woman strained to try to hear anything else. _There._ From the back of the house on her right came another tinkling sound, as if someone was clearing a windowpane of shards. For a long moment, Kenara thought about ignoring the sounds and moving on. Before she could take a step, one of the core values of the Hapan Navy leapt to the top of her thoughts-- _Integrity First: Doing the_ right _thing every time._ First and foremost, she was a Naval Ensign; she had volunteered to protect Hapes from _all_ threats, foreign _and_ domestic. To ignore this would be to insult centuries of proud Naval heritage. 

Taking a deep breath, and steeling her resolve with bravery she did not really feel, she started in direction of the sound. As she crept around the side of the house, she heard whispering, but could not decipher what has being said. Cringing, she stopped. Whispering implied two or more people, and she did not think that she could take on a group. _All thieves are cowards and will run when they are found out._ Kenara remembered hearing this once in junior high from a police officer that had been giving a talk about law enforcement careers. As she took a quick peek around the corner, she found herself hoping that the long-forgotten officer was right. 

Ducking back around the corner, she was pleased that there were only two people, both hiding behind a shrub. From the looks of them, they did not seem to be very tall, so maybe she would be able to intimidate them into simply leaving. Standing up, she backed up a step and took a deep breath, trying to channel the voice of her drill instructor. “Hey, what’s going on over there?” She was actually pretty pleased with how authoritative she sounded. _Sergeant Yo’mot would be proud!_

The brunette woman scowled when the expected sound of running footsteps did not materialize. Taking a deep breath, she rounded the corner and promptly froze. The ‘shrub’ that the other two were hiding behind was actually another person. He had been kneeling over to help clear away the shards from the broken window, and was HUGE. Swallowing, Kenara willed herself to not sound afraid. 

“I’ve called the police,” she bluffed, trying to sound authoritative.

She could almost hear the mirth in the big man’s voice. “Nah, you haven’t.” He pointed to his left ear; Kenara could only assume that he was pointing to a small earpiece. “You see, we’re scanning the police frequencies, and they are quiet as a tomb.”

From behind him, two ‘smaller’ men appeared, one wielding a nasty-looking club. Even being in the shadows as they were, ‘Batman’ (she had already given them names) saw her look at his club. 

Looking down, he addressed the club as if it were a friend, “You like Natalie? She’s a rounders bat wrapped in a couple of towels.” He looked back up at Kenara, smiling. “She can break windows without much noise.” His smile disappeared and there was no mistaking the menace in his voice, “And people.”

Fear had rooted her to the spot, and her mind was whirling to try to find a way out of this. “I don’t want any trouble,” she tried, her voice sounding embarrassingly pathetic.

The big man only chuckled mirthlessly, “It’s too late for that. We are going to have our fun with you and then kill you.”

Frantically, she seized on the one thing that might save her from being Hapes’ next murder victim: her job. Hapans had long been proud of their Navy; maybe these thieves had some sense of patriotism. Steeling her voice, “I’m an Ensign in the Royal Navy, it is a treasonable offense to harm me.” Inwardly, she cringed at her comment. They had already committed one crime, and had planned on doing two more to her, the last being severe capital crimes. Somehow, she doubted the threat of treason would deter them.

‘Mr. Shrub’, as she had mentally labeled the tallest of the trio seemed to catch the irony in her comment and snorted in laughter. “You certainly don’t lack courage; and I’m just as patriotic as the next guy.” Kenara allowed a small breath of relief. “We’ll just have our fun, then, and NOT kill you.”

Mr. Shrub took a step forward and Ensign Do’ma finally did what she should have done when this whole conversation started: run. Kenara knew that she did not have the outright speed of the men chasing her, so she cut across yards and dodged between houses hoping to be able to stay ahead of them long enough to run them out of breath. In the back of her mind, she pictured herself an oryctolagus running from a vulpes as she ducked through a shrub and sprinted across a yard to a back alley.

Sprinting down the alley, she could hear someone crash through the shrubbery and the sharp laugh of someone, ‘Batman’ if she had to guess, as he cackled at her. “Nice move, Ms. Navy. We’re still going run you down, though.”

Another alleyway crossed hers, and she darted left down that one, only to see that opened up onto a main thoroughfare. _Crap._ The last thing she wanted is a long straightaway for ‘Mr. Shrub’ to be able to use those long legs to run her down. Kenara put on a burst of speed she did not know she had and turned right down the street, sprinting as fast as she could. Instantly, she recognized where she was. If she took the next left, it was only a half-block to the City Arboretum, and she should be able to lose them in there.

As she sprinted down the street, it occurred to her that Ta’a Chume was correct; fear _is_ excellent motivation. Again, Kenara found new speed with the knowledge that she was now about a block to relative safety, half-a-block to the turn and then half-a-block to the arboretum. If she could get to the turn before they came out of the alley, they would have to slow down to try and determine which way she went, increasing her advantage. Like a swoop racer, she widened her turn, intending to hit the apex of the corner, and swing wide on the exit, allowing her to maintain as much speed as possible. As she started the turn, she risked a glimpse over her left shoulder to try and see her pursuers. Not seeing anyone, she allowed a small sense of relief before she felt a bone-rattling impact and her world went black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've always liked the way Zahn writes his non-Jedi characters...they are smart, clever and observant. I've tried to write Kenara that way...just someone who is clever enough to deduce the truth.
> 
> Thanks for reading!


	9. Collisions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What happens when reality is ALMOST the same as a Force vision?

* * *

After ensuring Jacen was on his way, Tenel Ka opened her eyes and smiled down at her daughter. “Thank you, sweetie.”

Allana said nothing but beamed her lovely smile; the same impish smile that Tenel Ka had seen on Jacen’s face many, many times. Winking, Tenel Ka led her daughter out of the small gym and headed up the stairs, “Our excitement is over for now; _you_ need to go back to bed.”

“But Mommy...”

Tenel Ka gave her five-year-old her best ‘Mommy’ look…a look she had seen her own mother use all too often, “No buts.” Her look softened, “However, if you do, you can come with me to see Daddy later today.”

Allana paused, considering the offer. Apparently, it seemed to meet whatever criteria she had set because she looked back up at her mother, “Okay,” and hustled up the remainder of the stairs and scampered back to her room. 

Tenel Ka could only shake her head as she continued up the stairs. As she did, the face of one of the Palace Guard stuck her head around the corner, clearly confused. “Is everything alright, Mum?”

_It will be soon enough._ The Queen Mother shrugged, “Yes, Kjetiele,” she nodded in the direction of her daughter, “…just a nightmare.” Captain Kjetiele Aamodt nodded in understanding as her boss made it up the last two steps. Catching the young Captain’s eye, Tenel Ka asked pleasantly, “I am in the mood for a run. Would you care to accompany me?”

When the Captain of the Palace Guard (ironically, a Lieutenant Colonel in the Royal Marines) found out that the newest member of the Guard was an avid runner, Kjetiele was immediately placed on the first shift. Aamodt was told: ‘The Queen has run our legs off; maybe _you_ can keep up.’ Unfortunately for Kjetiele, the Queen in question had heard the remark and had taken it as a personal challenge. So far, Captain Aamodt had been able to keep up. Mostly. In all fairness, the Queen did not have to run with an assault blaster, three battery packs, and a military-grade comlink; she only carried her lightsaber. 

“Certainly, Mum. Today’s route would be...” the raven-haired captain scrunched her face, trying to remember the route for Tuesdays this month, “...Route Charlie.” For the last few years, Tenel Ka felt it safe enough to run on public streets, so the Palace Guard devised random routes for her to run, so as to not get into a predictable pattern. Furthermore, they changed the daily routes once a month to further avoid patterns. When they had presented the plan to Tenel Ka, she understood the pains they had gone to make it work and made sure that she kept her ‘running schedule’ as unpredictable as possible.

Hearing today’s route, Tenel Ka fought the urge to roll her eyes. _Why does_ everything _come down to ‘Plan Cresh’ today?_ Narrowing her eyes in amusement, she replied, “I think we will just improvise today.” The slightly younger woman opened her mouth to object before she realized that the Queen _was_ a Jedi and could probably do ‘random’ better than most computers. Closing her mouth, she gave her boss a nod of agreement. The red-haired Queen nodded in thanks, asking politely, “Will ten minutes give you enough time to change?”

“Yes, Mum.”

T

_________|_________

O O(___)O O

Kenara found herself face down on the pavement, grimacing at her stupidity. She had finally gotten the lead she needed to escape ‘Mr. Shrub’ and had gone and thrown it all away by running into someone on a street corner. _Who is out at this time of day?_ Angrily, she rose to a kneeling position, straddling the person she collided with, realizing as she did that whomever she ran into had broken most of her fall. Unfortunately, she could not stop her face from smacking the asphalt, and she could feel blood drip down her chin. Glancing down the street, Kenara steeled herself for the fight that was about to come with the thugs that she could now hear sprinting down the street. Wiping her chin, she looked at the person she had collided with, “We’ve got trouble headed….” Kenara’s eyes grew wide with shock, even in the orange glow of the streetlights, she recognized the man she was sitting on, “…. _Jason_?” 

T

_________|_________

O O(___)O O

Jacen found himself nose-to-bellybutton with someone, grimacing at his stupidity. He had finally gotten his chance to live with the Queen Mother, and he had now thrown it away by getting run into by a jogger on a street corner. _Who goes running at this time of day?_ Hearing rapidly approaching footsteps, he turned his head to look down the street as he felt his jogger kneel over his body. Feeling her tense up, Jacen realized that whomever was coming down the street was chasing the young woman. 

Bracing himself for a fight, he turned his attention to the still-kneeling woman as he heard her say, “We’ve got trouble headed…”

Jacen’s eyes widened when he recognized the voice. “ _Kenara_?”

T

_________|_________

O O(___)O O

Instantly, Kenara realized that Jacen was headed _away_ from the Palace, that he had already said his final goodbyes. Before she could stop herself, she blurted, “I know what you have planned Jacen, and you _can’t_. The Queen needs someone to confide in; Princess Allana needs her father. You _can’t_ do this.”

Confusion crossed Jacen’s face, he never expected Ensign Do’ma to be able to piece everything together so quickly. “How did…?”

Jacen was interrupted by a gruff voice: ‘Mr. Shrub’ had finally caught up. “Well, well, it looks as if our little hero got herself tripped up. A pity really, you might have gotten away.”

Kenara and Jacen both slowly stood up and faced the tall man, standing shoulder-to-shoulder, as the other two thugs pounded to a stop and stood on either side of Mr. Shrub. 

Pointing at Jacen’s right arm with his club, Batman asked breathlessly, “What happened to you?”

Ignoring Kenara’s shocked expression as she noticed that his arm ended at the elbow, Jacen shrugged, “I had a fight with my girlfriend. Trust me, you do _not_ want to piss off a Dathomorian woman.” Off to his right, he could hear his companion’s sharp intake of breath.

The shorter man nodded sagely, “I’ll keep that in mind.” Shaking his head as he started to twirl his club, “Today just is not _your_ lucky day. If you ask nicely, we’ll only take your other hand.”

Jacen sighed sadly, it would seem that Yoda was right after all: the future _is_ always in motion. This confrontation was playing out like nothing he had seen in his dreams. Only the number of assailants and the location was accurate, everything else was _almost_ as he had seen it. Fishing the baton that Tenel Ka had given him out of his pocket, he pushed the release button and it telescoped to its full length of just over half a meter. “I’m afraid I can’t let you do that. My girlfriend let me keep the hand so that I could...” He trailed off and a slight smirk crossed his lips, “Trust me, our make-up sex is _fantastic_.” 

As the three thugs chuckled at his comment, he muttered quietly to Kenara, “I’ll take Batman, you take the Mime.” Referring to the one thief who had yet to talk.

Kenara nodded fractionally, indicating that she understood the plan. “What about Mr. Shrub?” she murmured back.

Jacen risked a quick glance at the Hapan Ensign, “Keep him at bay until help arrives.”

It was now Kenara’s turn to give her partner a quick look. Jacen sounded supremely confident that help was on the way. Who else would be out this time of morning?

Exploding into action, Jacen speared his baton into the chest of Batman, breaking a rib and staggering the man backwards. Unfortunately, he had meant to hit the man in the throat to kill him, but just was not fast enough. Knowing he would have to deal with Batman later, he pivoted to the left to block whatever Mr. Shrub was throwing at him. Before he could fully pivot, his left cheek exploded in pain as the large man caught him full in the face with a huge haymaker, one enhanced by a set of duristeel knuckles.

Ignoring the pain and the broken teeth, Jacen spun with the punch and swung his baton violently, catching Mr. Shrub in the knee. Jacen continued to pivot as the man howled in pain, and blocked Batman’s awkward swing with the baton, deflecting the bat into the man’s hip. Again, he jabbed at the man’s throat, but again missed…this time hitting him in the right shoulder.

Before he could turn again to face Mr. Shrub, the larger man connected a kick with the back of Jacen’s left knee, pitching him to the ground. Again, Jacen rolled with the blow and immediately sprang to his feet only to be staggered again by a blow to one of his kidneys. He tried to turn to meet this attack, only to turn into another one of Mr. Shrub’s haymakers, who connected again with his left cheekbone…totally collapsing what was left of the bone structure. Fighting to remain conscious, Jacen swung at the large man’s head, but the man ducked easily under the blow, chuckling as he did. Jacen started to swing again, but was again waylaid by a second blow to the kidney, dropping him to the pavement.

“You two certainly have fighting will.” Mr. Shrub said conversationally as Jacen pried himself off of the ground, “Just not ability.” 

Jacen rose to a kneeling position and caught the eye of Kenara, who had also been dropped to the ground and was struggling to get to her feet. He quickly motioned with his eyes towards Batman, hoping she would get the hint to join him in attacking the man with the club. Seeing her quick nod, he sprang at Batman driving him to the ground with a bone-crunching tackle. 

Kenara was right behind Jacen and immediately grabbed the bat, delivering a blow to the Mime’s mid-section. She turned to face Mr. Shrub, but the big man was faster, and she got the wind knocked out of her with a punch to the solar plexus. Staggering backwards, she kept the bat raised, but could not fend off his next punch, this one catching her on the right cheek, knocking her flat.

Struggling with Batman, Jacen heard the _clatter_ of the rounders bat hitting the ground and knew that Kenara was in serious trouble. Before he could free himself, his right side exploded in pain as Mr. Shrub hit him violently with the bat. Batman shoved Jacen off and kicked him in the temple as he got to his feet. 

Rolling over, Jacen saw Mr. Shrub’s evil grin. “Just not enough ability, hero.” Seeing the big man raise the bat over his head, Jacen closed his eyes and lost consciousness in a flash of green light **.**


	10. Running towards danger

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The fair maiden gets to rescue the dashing knight.

_Fountain Palace, Chume'dan_

Eleven minutes after leaving Captain Aamodt to change, Tenel Ka waited at the Palace’s service entrance fighting the urge to pace the hallway. Ordinarily, she was not a fidgety person, but Jacen was in harm’s way and she had she could not let him remain there for any longer than necessary. Unfortunately, she also had to make everything from here forward look happenstance and looking anxious simply would not do.

Thirty seconds later, Kjietele Aamodt hustled down the stairs, “My apologies, Mum. I needed to reload the crypto in the radio, arrange for the police escort, and…”

“It is fine, Kjietele.” Tenel Ka interrupted, smiling slightly at the flustered Guardsman, “It’s only a run. Everything in place?” She asked, meaning the Chume’dan police escort. The Palace guard understood their Queen’s desire to make these morning runs as inconspicuous as possible, so they deferred to her desire to keep the Palace’s armored speeders in the garage. In response, Tenel Ka also deferred to their wish that _some_ motorized escort be available for any unforeseen issues. As a result, a Chume’dan Police cruiser would shadow her on the running route, trying to maintain that most delicate of balances for a security team; the line between being overbearing and inept.

Captain Aamodt nodded and tapped her earpiece, “Chume’dan PD just checked in. Their cruiser is in position.”

“Very good.” Tenel Ka replied, and made her way through the door, nodding her thanks at the doorman as she did.

Leaving the Palace grounds, Tenel Ka found herself making idle chit-chat with Kjietelle…something that she was usually never any good at doing. Somewhere in the back of her mind was the thought that even stoic Queens get chatty when nervous. They talked about the Palace team in the city’s smashball league and how they needed a better centerback, the security arrangements for the upcoming Garden open house, Allana’s recent attempts at sneaking into the armory…in short, the sort of conversations that two people have while trying to look like they are not out of breath.

After running through the arboretum, the two took a right turn and could see what looked to be a brawl about three blocks ahead. Three people surrounded two others and were taking turns kicking the defenseless pair. Tenel Ka _knew_ that one of the pair on the ground was Jacen, but his vision said nothing about anyone else. Suddenly, the two people on the ground charged one of the other men, his rounders bat falling to the ground.

“What the…??” Kjietelle exclaimed as she slowed and reached for her comlink.

“Kriff!” Tenel Ka said at the same instant and accelerated to a sprint, watching as one of the pair on the ground tackled one of the others, while his partner grabbed the bat. Their advantage was short lived, however, as the one with the bat was attacked by a hulking brute of a man and with a debilitating punch to the ribs followed by a wicked cross to the jaw. The other of the pair was fairing no better, receiving a swift kick to the head as the man he had tackled got to his feet. As he struggled to get up, the huge man turned and raised the bat over his head.

“JACEN!” Tenel Ka screamed in terror as she grabbed her lightsaber from her belt and whipped it at the huge man, igniting it with the Force after she had thrown it. Even from a block away, she could see the man’s look of surprise as her saber speared him in the chest. She made a motion with her hand and the sabre slashed one of his other compatriots in the throat. Before she could gesture again, three shots from Captain Aamodt felled the third assailant as he turned to run.

Approaching the carnage at a dead sprint, Tenel Ka took a look at her friend and gasped. Jacen was in pretty bad shape when he had left the palace, now he looked like death itself. Most of his face was unrecognizable, and she lost count at how many of his teeth were scattered about on the asphalt.

Kneeling, she put her hand on his forehead and felt another wave of nausea. It seemed that only inherent Solo stubbornness was keeping him alive. As she set about to try and alleviate the most life-threatening injuries, Captain Aamodt finally caught up and quickly kicked the rounders bat down the street out of anyone’s reach and scanned the surrounding area as the sirens of their escort speeder started to sound in the near distance.

Looking up at her bodyguard, Tenel Ka noticed the woman’s curious look and ignored the unasked question. Gesturing at the other victim, “Check her injuries. There is no danger in the area.”

Kjietelle gave her boss another quizzical look, but said nothing as she turned to offer whatever first aid she could to the badly beaten woman.

Looking down, Tenel Ka could see that Jacen fought his way back to consciousness.

“Hi.” He said softly as he partially opened his left eye.

“Hi.” She replied just as quietly, as Captain Aamodt ordered the police to call for an ambulance and set up a cordon around the area. “How are you feeling?”

“Everything hurts. How do I look?”

She gave his body another once over, “Like you got run over by a Battle Dragon.”

Jacen started to laugh, only to have it turn into a painful cough. “Good to know. It didn’t hurt this bad in my vision.”

Tenel Ka shook her head, “Always in motion….”

“Don’t remind me.” Jacen interrupted, a small smile on his lips. He started to say something else, but it turned into another coughing fit and he turned his head to spit out a mouthful of blood. “Ouch.”

At Myrkr, Tenel Ka learned that her friend was the toughest man she knew. For him to admit pain meant that it was immense. “I’m going to put you in a trance until help arrives.” 

As she placed her hand gently on his forehead, Jacen could only reply with a weak “’M-kay.”

After getting him in the trance, Tenel Ka searched his body in the Force and was fairly sure that he would survive the trip to the hospital. With a sigh, she stood and turned, to find Captain Aamodt in standing right in front of her, an intent look on the officer’s face. 

“Who is this?” Aamodt asked quietly, nodding at Jacen’s prone form.

Tenel Ka hung her head in defeat as the emergency sirens grew louder; her carefully crafted world crashing down around her. Kjietelle Aamodt had picked up on the forced nonchalance, caught on that the ‘random’ jogging route was never more than four blocks from this very intersection, and, most importantly, heard the Queen’s panicked scream. Jacen had spent weeks working on this plan, she herself had spent half-a-lifetime trying to make an environment where he would be accepted as Consort, and she had thrown it all away with bad acting and the inability to keep her mouth shut.

Buried in her memories were images of her two closest friends and their seemingly mystic ability to talk themselves out of anything. Unfortunately, one of them was half-a-galaxy away, and the other was in a coma at her feet. She cast about for a plausible lie, but realized that she could not lie to her Palace Guard. This woman volunteered to put herself in harm’s way for her Queen, and Tenel Ka would not repay that selflessness by lying. Somehow, Jacen’s voice sounded in her head— _Trust her_.

“My best friend.” Tenel Ka answered softly, raising her eyes to meet the intense gaze of the other woman.

If the stern Army captain was surprised, she did not show it. Instead, she gave her boss a proud smile; one that seemed to say that it was okay for the Queen to admit that she loved this man and that if Hapes ever learned the truth, it would not be from Kjietelle Aamodt.

“Well, we’d better make sure he lives through this, then.” Kjietelle replied quietly, before turning and heading towards the ambulance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know, this one is a tad short. Thanks for reading!


	11. Goodbye.  And Hello.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tenel Ka has to speak at her friend's 'funeral', and meets one of her oldest friends.

_Ordway Auditorium—Coruscant,_ 5 days later

Tenel Ka paused a moment to study the modest crowd in front of her: directly in front of her was the Chief of State, but most of the crowd was GAG personnel, Coruscanti Police, a few low-ranking Senators and dignitaries. She spied a small number of Jedi at the back, but they were too deep in shadow to be seen clearly, and, in all honesty, she was not sure if she cared who they were or not. Off to her left, her ‘father-in-law’ stood against the wall murmuring to a shorter man in a GAG uniform. Catching her eye, Han gave her a small nod, and she took a deep breath.

“Jacen Solo is dead today because I failed him. I knew what he wanted more than anything in life, and I denied him. As many of you already know, Jacen Solo loved me; much as I wished he did not. His only wish was to spend his life with me; a wish that I had to politely turn down numerous times. Why? I loved Jacen Solo so much that it scared me. I was afraid of what other people might think; I was afraid that others would wish us harm, afraid that if I gave in to _my_ feelings I would be viewed as weak. I became trapped by the fear of my feelings. It took his death for me to realize this painful fact: If other people would not accept _JACEN SOLO_ as my Prince Regent, the same Jacen Solo who was one of the heroes of our last war, who WILL they accept? He was the only man for me, and I was too afraid to see it.

I failed Jacen Solo. WE failed Jacen Solo. We all watched as Jacen started acting differently and what did WE do? Nothing. We sat and watched as one of the most empathetic people we had ever met suddenly became withdrawn, moody, dispassionate. We became concerned, we told others of our concern, yet we DID nothing. We lectured, we threatened, but we never talked. We never asked; we never listened.

We pride ourselves on serving others; yet when one of our own needs help, we watch dispassionately, making sure not to stain our ‘lightness’ with the darkness of one of our own. Shame. On. You. Shame on me. This will not happen again. Not on my watch. The galaxy demands better; I demand better. My mother raised me to be better than this, and I will spend my remaining days with this horrible guilt. I failed my mother, I failed my best friend, I failed...” _our daughter_. Tenel Ka meant to say it; meant to announce to the galaxy that her daughter was Jacen’s daughter, but did not. Not now. None of these pretenders _deserved_ to know. 

“I am sorry Jacen.” A single tear traced down her cheek as she kissed her fingers and placed them on the holo of Jacen behind her, “I love you.”

T

_________|_________

O O(___)O O

The Queen Mother rode in silence for the duration of the twenty-minute ride back to her hotel, lost in thought about what had transpired at the memorial ceremony. In hindsight, she should have known not to expect the Jedi at the event to come up and tell her that she was right and that they needed to do better, but she had not expected to be outright shunned, particularly by the people she had counted as her closest friends. If it had not been for Lon Shevu and Vinsu Karthikayan, neither of whom strayed from her side out of loyalty to their boss, she would have been by herself almost the entire time. 

Only Han Solo, the man who should have been her father-in-law had the decency to talk to her. As he pulled her into a huge embrace, he whispered into her hair, “You were right. We failed.” He continued to hold her for a time as she broke down; her quiet sobs wracking her slender body. “We failed you.” Tenel Ka released him and backed fractionally to object, but Han put a finger on her lips, and continued, still whispering, “It won’t happen again. Leia and I are going to make a bother of ourselves at your Palace and help Isolder spoil your daughter.” She nodded fractionally, knowing that Han did not know the truth about Allana yet and allowed herself to be pulled into another hug as she realized just how much her secret had cost the Solos.

The Queen was startled out of her reverie by a soft knock on the windowpane, the signal that it was safe to exit the limousine. Taking a deep breath, she nodded at the Royal Marine major sitting next to her that she was ready, not bothering to dry her still damp eyes. She had hidden her love for Jacen Solo for years; she would not do it anymore. Ignoring the helping hand of the major and the multitude of flashbulbs from the small crowd of curious bystanders and holo-journalists, the Hapan Queen Mother gracefully got out of the limousine and made her way into the large hotel, only vaguely aware as her five-member security team fanned out around her on the way to the turbolift. Giving a nod of thanks to the staff member whose job it was to hold the elevator for her and her entourage, she boarded the large-ish lift car, watching as the lobby rapidly got smaller through the transparisteel wall. 

After several moments, it occurred to her just how odd it was for six people, all of whom knew each other fairly well, to be so _quiet_. Jacen would have found the silence disconcerting and probably would have cracked an awful joke by now. For the first time that day, Tenel Ka felt a small smirk on her lips.

With a soft ‘ping’, the turbolift door opened and four members of her security detail quickly set up a perimeter in the small lobby. One of the four gave a nod to the major, and she, in turn, nodded towards the Queen Mother that it was safe to continue. Turning left out of the ‘lift, Tenel Ka noticed the lovely little garden on the penthouse veranda. Having missed it last night when she had arrived, she paused to take a closer look, taking a few steps towards the transparisteel. The garden was not all that large, maybe half a smashball court, but it sported a grassy knoll, a small copse of trees, a meandering slate path and a small stream that went downhill left to right into the trees. Behind this small patch of idyll serenity, was a breath-taking view of the Coruscanti cityscape, looking almost like the Atlas Mountains. Just as she was turning to leave, the one-armed monarch noticed a petite brunette woman sitting under the trees on the park’s sole bench. Tenel Ka reached out cautiously in the Force, lightly brushing the other’s mind and recoiled slightly at the other’s sense of despair and loneliness. Letting out the breath that she did not know she was holding, Tenel Ka wrestled with whether she wanted to talk to the other woman. _Trust her_. Jacen’s words popped again into her mind as she suppressed a grimace; this was _not_ going to be easy.

Walking over to the double doors that allowed access to the garden, the Queen looked over at the major and commanded quietly, “Stay here, please.” The major scowled in displeasure and opened her mouth to object, but stopped when Tenel Ka opened her jacket slightly, the tell-tale handle of her lightsaber just visible in the left inside pocket, “I will be alright.” The major nodded in acquiescence as Tenel Ka buttoned her jacket.

After walking into the garden, Tenel Ka again reached out with the Force, this time to let the woman know that she was not alone. Feeling the other’s resigned acceptance of having her tranquility intruded upon, she quietly made her way to the bench and sat down, carefully positioning herself in relation to the other woman; close enough to imply a certain intimacy, but far enough away as not to intrude. Through the tentative link the two women had established, Tenel Ka shared her own loneliness and heartache as she allowed the slightly younger woman’s to be shared in return; each comforted by the fact that at least one other person felt as she did. Together, the two of them sat in silence as they watched the planet of Coruscant go about its daily business, the ever-present hum of city life soothing their tortured souls.

Finally, after an undetermined amount of time, Jaina Solo broke their uneasy silence. Not taking her eyes off of the cityscape, she said quietly, “I didn’t mean it.”

Sensing the Queen Mother’s confusion, Jaina explained as she continued to watch Coruscant’s traffic. “When I said that you had the emotional depth of ronto.” She paused slightly, “I didn’t mean it.”

Tenel Ka snorted humorlessly, “I had forgotten.”

Jaina shot her a look. “No, you haven’t.”

Jaina was correct, Tenel Ka had not forgotten. It was not as if she wanted to hold a grudge, because she did not. But it is hard to forget when someone you thought of as a dear friend said one of the most horrible things imaginable during one of the worst times of your life. Deep down, Tenel Ka knew Jaina had not meant the words spoken that day, but those words had still damaged their friendship in a way that might not ever heal.

“I couldn’t have done it.” Jaina continued as she turned her gaze back to the city, interrupting Tenel Ka’s thoughts. “I couldn’t have stood in front of those worthless bureaucrats, attention-grabbing politicians and smug Jedi and not tried to strangle the lot of them.”

Tenel Ka could not help but smirk at the comment. “I wanted to.”

Jaina nodded but said nothing. The Queen continued, “I did not see you there.”

Jaina nodded again, hearing the pain in her friend’s voice even as she tried to keep her voice neutral. Looking down, Jaina picked at some lint on her dress. “I had to stay at the back. I was so _angry_ at the lot of them, that I didn’t trust myself to not start shouting at all of them. We _all_ failed, and _they_ stood there and pretended it was all Jacen’s fault…that there was nothing they could have done.”

Tenel Ka had no reply for that, and the two women sat in silence and watch life on Coruscant go on around them.

Finally, the Queen Mother looked at her friend, “We have a favor to ask, Friend Jaina.”

Jaina continued her silence, but nodded in assent. As she did, she wondered how long her friend had been referring to herself in the plural. While Jaina understood the custom behind the syntax, she still found it off-putting.

After seeing her friend’s nod, Tenel Ka continued, “Well, actually two. We need your help in finding Tahiri.”

“You don’t think that she’ll...” _Follow Jacen’s path_? Jaina stopped, not wishing to verbalize what she feared.

Tenel Ka picked up on Jaina’s thoughts and shook her head, “I don’t know…but she _is_ alone. And hurting.” Her voice dropped, “We need to help.” Her grey eyes shone with a look of determination, “We _have_ to help.”

“Tahiri is practically family. Of course I’ll help.” Jaina’s eyes hardened, somehow she got the feeling the second favor was going to be harder to agree to. “And this second favor?”

Tenel Ka looked at Jaina, desperation in her grey eyes and leaned closer, almost pleading, “We need someone to help raise your niece and help teach her about the Force.” The Queen Mother let that hang between them for a couple of seconds. “Please?”

Jaina’s shock at the admission rang through the Force like a gong. Right away, she knew that Tenel Ka was telling the truth; she could feel the guilt emanating from her friend that she had kept her daughter a secret from the very people who would have done anything to keep her safe. After several long moments of stunned silence, Tenel Ka began to explain further. 

“We...I... blew it by not telling everyone the truth. My fear...” she trailed off, her bottom lip trembling, “...I was afraid of the wrong people finding out.” She looked over at Jaina, barely able to keep her composure, “He almost died because I was afraid to _trust_.”

_Almost?_ Jaina said nothing as she took her friend’s hand. All of a sudden, she realized the _we_ Tenel Ka was using earlier was not just Royal syntax, it was literal. “My brother is still alive?” She asked quietly. Through their link, Jaina could sense the other woman’s relief that she had caught both of her intentional slips. 

Tenel Ka smirked and shook her head as she wiped a tear from each eye, “No, Jacen Solo _is_ dead.” Her voice dropped to a whisper, “Jason Naberre, however...”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again for reading! Stay safe!


	12. Hiding in Plain Sight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Family bonding -- Solo-style!

_Magna Keto Hospital, Chume’dan, Hapes--_

Leia stood outside the door to room 1224 for a moment trying to decide if she wanted to do this. While she had no reason to believe that Tenel Ka would send her on a wild mynock chase, the note _was_ pretty vague: _J. Naberre—MKH 1224_. Leia had analyzed the note so many times that she felt that she could reasonably forge Tenel Ka’s handwriting without too much effort. More for something to do as she contemplated her next course of action, Leia reached out in the Force trying to sense whom was on the other side. She could only sense one person, but she definitely could hear a faint conversation. Either the person on the other side of the door was talking to himself, or there were two people on the other side. Taking a deep breath to steel her resolve, she knocked once and opened the door.

T

_________|_________

O O(___)O O

When Allana had asked again to go see Jason in the hospital, Isolder did not have the heart to say ‘no’. On one hand, he was concerned that Allana did not really understand that her Jacen was dead and that this was just a man who seemed to enjoy the young girl’s company. Indeed, Isolder’s biggest fear was that his granddaughter was merely transferring her affection to a ‘different’ Jason and would not understand when this man left Hapes to restart his life. Still...Allana seemed to be happier when she was visiting her new friend and Jason never seemed to mind; perhaps this was the best way for both of them to heal. Making a mental note to talk to his daughter about it when she returned from Coruscant, the Crown Prince once again took Allana to the hospital and left her in the care of Jason Naberre for a couple of hours, noticing the way the younger man’s face lit up as she snuggled up with him on the bed. After a couple of minutes of idle chit-chat, the Hapan Prince left, promising to return after his meeting with the Finance Minister.

After her grandfather had left, Allana looked up at her father, her grey eyes full of mischief. “What can you teach me today, daddy?”

Jacen smiled warmly at his daughter. “Well, let’s see...yesterday we learned how to differentiate equations, so...”

Allana angrily shook her head and huffed, “No silly, you taught me how to leb-itate things.”

Smacking his forehead with his left hand, Jacen tried his best sheepish look as his daughter giggled at his absent-mindedness. “Oh, that’s right, I covered Calculus with the _other_ little girl who comes to visit.”

Allana shook her head again, “Huh-uh. There are no other little girls that visit.” Her grey eyes narrowed suspiciously, “Are there?”

Jacen tried to hide his bemused smirk; the way his daughter tried to hide her jealousy was exactly like Tenel Ka.

Kissing her forehead, Jacen answered, “No honey, you are the only little girl for me.” Seeing Allana’s eyes light up at his admission, he asked, “Did you practice levitating you stuffed animals last night, like I asked?”

Nodding vigorously, the young princess answered, “Yep. Once I was able to leb-itate _two_ at the same time. Want me to show you?”

Jacen smiled proudly as he quickly grabbed the vidscreen remote and a chocolate bar from the table next to them and placed them at their feet. “Absolutely.” 

He watched as Allana raised her right arm, her face scrunched in concentration, focusing with fierce determination on the two objects at the foot of the bed. Closing his eyes, Jacen gently took her hand, and allowed the Force to swirl around him through their link like a stream flowing around a boulder; he could see the currents, feel the effects, but was no longer able to manipulate this current. Some, he suspected, would be driven mad by this proximity, but Jacen was not. His role had changed; his role was now that of a teacher. Jacen was to teach his daughter how to be better than he was—better than her great-grandfather was. 

As he looked for Allana’s Force presence, he could sense her desire to impress and her growing frustration as both the remote and chocolate remained firmly anchored to the bed. _Relax._ Jacen told his daughter calmly. _Take a deep breath._ He watched Allana take a breath as she unclenched her fist. _Close your eyes. Can you still see the remote?_ Allana nodded. Jacen smiled. _Good. Take another deep breath._ She did and her shoulders visibly relaxed. _Can you feel the energy of the Force?_ Another nod. _Let it wash over you-- like you’re taking a bath in it._ Jacen grinned at the image that had popped up in their link, the image of Allana floating in her mother’s huge tub, bubbles and floating toys all around. Unbidden, Allana took another deep breath and Jacen could feel the Force’s soothing effects. _Can you still see the remote?_ Again, Allana nodded. _Okay, reach out for it._

Raising her right arm again, Allana reached towards the remote and the remote wobbled a couple of times on the bed. _You’re doing great! Take another deep breath._ As she did, the remote started to rise off the bed. _Can you see the chocolate bar?_ Allana nodded and the remote dropped slightly as Allana shifted her attention, but she managed to keep it afloat. Slowly, the brown-and-silver wrapped chocolate started to rise off the bed. _See Daddy, I_ can _do it_! With her excitement, both items almost fell, but she was able to just catch them just in time. Smiling at her exuberance, Jacen squeezed her hand after she managed to raise both objects a bit higher. _Careful!_ he admonished lightly; _do you think you can bring the chocolate closer?_ Giving him a determined nod, she slowly started floating the chocolate to within reach, still keeping the remote still in the air. Reaching out with his left hand, Jacen caught the candy and started to unwrap it. As he suspected it would, the crinkling of the foil paper broke her concentration and the remote bounced down to the bed. 

Her eyes springing open, Allana looked over at her father who was taking a bite out of the chocolate bar. 

“I did it!” she exclaimed excitedly. Part of her thought that maybe she had just imagined moving the chocolate, but now saw the concrete evidence that she really _did_ move it. 

“You did.” Jacen agreed, his voice full of pride. Handing her the chocolate, “And here is your reward for all of that hard work.” She beamed at her father as the two of them shared the best-tasting chocolate bar ever.

After finishing, Jacen leaned over to wipe a bit of chocolate off of Allana’s chin, “Today’s lesson will be about hiding.”

The red-haired princess rolled her eyes, “Daddy, I already know how to do that. I hide from the Nanny droid all of the...” her words died off when she saw her father’s look of consternation. Even before she was allowed to admit that Jacen was her Daddy, a fact she _always_ knew by the way, admitting on hiding from those who were trying to protect her was always the quickest way to get in trouble with her parents.

“What have we told you about hiding from your Nanny?” Jacen asked pointedly. Allana dropped her head shamefully and Jacen had to suppress a chuckle as he remembered all of the times that he and his siblings had tried to duck away from Threepio. Pulling his daughter into a tight squeeze, he kissed the top of her head, “Sweetie, we just want you to stay safe, okay?” 

Allana looked up at him, relieved at getting off relatively unscathed at her admission, and gave him a big smile. 

Shaking his head in disbelief, “What I meant was that today I’m going to teach you how to hide in the Force.” Seeing his daughter’s quizzical look, Jacen sighed sadly, “Allana, not everyone who can use the Force is a good person, you need to be able to hide from these people as well.”

“Mommy said that she helped stop you from becoming a bad man.”

Jacen’s face fell, ashamed at the path he had been on. Quietly, he admitted, “She was right.” He looked down into his daughter’s lovely eyes, and tried to will his tears away, “I forgot...” Jacen trailed off and kissed Allana’s forehead and cleared his throat, “...I forgot what was important.”

“But you remember now?”

Nodding warmly, Jacen squeezed her hand and sent all of his love for her through their shared link, “I remember now...thanks to you.”

Hapes’ Crown Princess thought about this for a second and nodded once, sensing the truth of what her father had told her, gave him her special smile. “Good. Now, teach me how to hide.”

Jacen gave her a mock bow which only made her giggle, “Yes, Your Majesty.” Still holding her hand, “First, we start by anchoring ourselves in the Force...” Jacen started to walk her through the process of becoming _small_. Maybe it was because she was used to playing hide and seek with the Palace Guard in addition to hiding from her nanny droid, or maybe it was because she had picked up her father’s affinity for wildlife, or maybe it was just because she is _really_ strong in the Force, but Allana picked up on the technique almost immediately. First, she imagined herself hiding in her toy box, just like she hid from the nanny droid, and drew her Force presence in on herself like a blanket. Then, she imagined herself as a baby feline hiding in the box and got her presence smaller. After that, she imagined herself as one of the small fuzzy arachnids she always thought were cute, (bringing a large smile to her father’s face) and her Force presence all but vanished.

Impressed, Jacen squeezed her hand. _You’re doing really well. Do you think you can walk around?_ Opening his eyes, making sure to keep his link open, he watched as Allana scrunched her face and nodded. As she got off of the bed, her eyes still closed, Jacen let his visual cues flow to her through their link and could not help but smile as she still imagined herself as a spider, falling to the floor with a cute ‘thunk’. “I’m going to talk to you as you walk around, okay?”

“Okay.” The spider answered and started to skitter across the floor. Seeing a glass of water on the far dresser, the grey-eyed arachnid asked, “Can I have a drink?”

“Sure sweetie.” Seeing the dresser from her viewpoint on the floor, “Do you think you can get up there?” 

Jacen did not know that it was possible for arachnids to roll their eyes, but Allana just proved that it was. “Of course, Daddy. I’m a _spider_.” As Jacen choked down his laugh and watched as his daughter, still in spider form in their minds, skittered over to the dresser and scamper easily to the top. Shooting her father a castigating look, Allana clambered into the small glass, took a drink, climbed out of glass and neatly parachuted to the floor, leaving a thin trail of silk behind her. 

For a long second, Jacen just shared his daughter’s obvious enjoyment at being a ‘spider’ and simply watched her move around the room, watching from her point-of-view. Not only did she easily master a technique it took Jacen ages to perfect, but Allana also managed to capture the intricacies of how arachnids move around; in all honesty, he was not really sure if which aspect of this lesson he was prouder of. “You know Allana, I don’t even know which floor I’m on. Could you look out the window and let me know?”

“Okay.” The Allana spider chirped happily, clearly looking forward to being able to climb another obstacle. Just as she reached the top of the windowsill and looked out, there was a knock on the door and someone entered the room, shattering her ‘spider’ illusion, leaving her once again as a six-year-old girl standing in front of the window.

T

_________|_________

O O(___)O O

Leia quickly took a pair steps into the hospital room and furrowed her brow in confusion as someone’s Force presence bloomed into existence. Quickly scanning the room, she saw two sets of eyes looking at her quizzically. One pair, belonging to a red-haired little girl who looked vaguely familiar, regarded her as if Leia were someone she should recognize. The other pair, being a brown color that Leia was _all_ too familiar with, belonged to a young man whose head was still mostly wrapped in bandages. For a long moment, all three sets of eyes stared at each other, Leia glancing back-and-forth between those warm brandy-brown eyes and the slightly confused steel grey pair. 

Finally, the young man found his voice, saying quietly, “Hi, Mom.”

As tears started to fill her own eyes, Leia leaned gently against the door behind her, forcing it closed with a loud ‘thump’. Covering her mouth with her left hand, she answered just as quietly, “Hello.” 

She tried to blink away her emotion; for the second time in a decade, her little boy had come back from the dead. Taking a deep breath to try to calm her emotions, she glanced over again at the lovely girl standing awkwardly against the far wall, and could not stop the tears when she saw the girl’s embarrassed half-grin; a grin that was a remarkable facsimile of the one that melted her heart forty-odd years ago on a carbon-freezing platform on Bespin.

Using the formal tones that he had long ago learned as the son of the Chief-of-State, Jacen introduced the pair. “Princess Allana, Chume’da of Hapes, I introduce Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan.”

Recognizing the formal tone, Allana stood straight and performed her best curtsy. “Greetings, Princess Leia.”

Wiping her left eye, Leia smiled warmly and returned the curtsy with all the grace and style Breha Organa had taught all of those years ago. “Och du, prinsessan Allana.” She answered in Hapan, getting a large smile in return. Taking another step towards Allana, she opened her arms and knelt down, “May I get a hug?”

In answer, Allana ran towards her grandmother and leapt into her warm embrace. Standing, Leia wrapped the girl in an affectionate hug. As she did, Allana whispered cautiously, “You’re my grandma, aren’t you?”

Leia could only nod as she squeezed her granddaughter in a tighter hug, another tear tracing down her cheek as she closed her eyes. Instead of talking, Leia opened herself in the Force and found Allana’s warm presence right away, waiting for her. Smiling as she stroked the girl’s hair, she started to flood their new link with pure love and acceptance. Only after a few moments did she finally notice Allana’s link with her father, a link that Jacen was clearly reluctant to use for fear of intruding, or worse, outright rejection. Without thinking twice, Leia extended her love through the link, inviting him to join the two of them. Cautiously, as if he were unsure of this invitation, Jacen slowly took hold of Leia’s outstretched ‘hand’ and together the three of them hugged each other with the Force, luxuriating in their love and acceptance of each other. 

After what might have been a few moments or a few years, Leia finally released her granddaughter from her tight embrace and placed her on the floor, watching as Allana jumped back on the bed and settled next to her father. Her heart leaping at the sight of the two of them together, she proceeded to cast a mother’s critical eye over her son and winced—he looked _terrible_. Even half-wrapped in gauze as it was, she could still see all of the scars on his face; his left hand was in a cast, and what the hell happened to his right hand? 

Asking as if she were afraid of the answer, “What happened?”

Before Jacen could even open his mouth to reply, Allana answered matter-of-factly, “Mommy helped Daddy from becoming a bad man.” 

Jacen squeezed Allana’s hand warmly and smiled at his mother’s confused look, “That’s the long and short of what happened.” 

Seeing Leia’s ‘You-know-I’m-not-falling-for-that’ look, Jacen’s smile got a tad larger and he scooted to his right to give her room to sit on the bed.

“It all started about a month ago when it dawned on me that I needed a way to escape the path I was on in a way that would not endanger everyone I hold dear...” Jacen started to explain, as he ruffled his daughter’s red hair. He started off wit the fact that he was apprenticed to Lumiya, but left out his trip to the Bimmiel system, and described the incredible dread he had been feeling for the last few months over the current Corellian mess, telling his mother about the growing intelligence that Gejjen was plotting an attack on Coruscant’s infrastructure. He told them of his plan of sneaking into the palace and getting help from Tenel Ka. Jacen saw his mother’s understanding nod; she caught on to the fact that Jacen had gone to the Fountain Palace knowing that his death might not have to be faked.

As his daughter stared at him wide-eyed, he went into detail about going on patrol a week ago and finding the ‘John Doe’ victim that looked strangely familiar. The final piece he needed to set his plan in motion. 

Leia interrupted, her face concerned, “You didn’t...” she trailed off, not wanting to voice her question.

“No.” Jacen answered sharply; clearly aghast that his own mother thought him to be enough of a monster to kill another person simply because he needed a body-double. “No. Mr. Naberre had been dead some six hours before he was found by the building super.” His voice turned quiet, “Anakin mentioned that he was last seen at about 0220 in a ‘gentlebeings’ establishment.” He gave his mother an annoyed shrug, “Unfortunately, I am no longer in a position to confirm that.”

His mother looked at him warily, “You talked to Anakin?”

The hospital-bound former Jedi nodded sadly, “Yeah.” As Allana laid her head on his shoulder, Jacen told his mother of his conversation with Anakin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Feel free to leave a comment!


	13. Prince and Princess

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jacen's plan is uncovered by Isolder...how does this affect the future?

_Same day, Magna Keto Hospital, Chume’dan, Hapes--_

As Isolder boarded the hospital turbolift with his requisite member of the Palace Guard, he was once again facing the conundrum of what to do about Jason Naberre. He liked the young man, but doubted that he was up for the rigors of dealing with the Hapan press and nobility. The former was firm, but fair; the latter conniving and mean-spirited. As much as Isolder hated the idea, it might be best for this to be Allana’s last visit.

With a resigned sigh, he stepped off of the lift and started down the hall to deliver the bad news to his granddaughter. Five meters down the hall, Captain Aamodt came to her feet behind the small desk stationed as an improvised ‘guard mount’.

“Your Majesty,” Captain Aamodt said, nodding at an adjacent empty room, “might I have a word?”

Isolder was a bit perplexed by the need for privacy; all of the Palace Guard had the highest security clearance, and Kjietelle knew that the hospital was NOT the place to discuss classified material. Even in an empty room. And, this being Hapes, maybe _especially_ in an empty room.

“Certainly.” He replied, taking a quick step towards the room she had indicated, noticing that she had grabbed the Visitor’s Log off of the desk as she followed. Once she had closed the door behind her, he gave a resigned sigh, knowing her reason for calling him in here. Chum’dan Police were the only other visitors that had been to the hospital to see Jason, each time for over an hour. After four different, and rather thorough visits, it was clear to Isolder that Jason’s story had remained fairly constant. 

Confused as to why they’d be interrogating Jason again, “I thought the _polis_ had agreed not to interview him with Allana present.”

Kjietelle shook her head and simply pointed at the most recent entry. Slightly irritated by her lack of answer, Isolder looked down and his eyes opened in surprise. On the page, there were two entries on the top line. One, in the recognizable precise printing of Captain Aamodt read, _Leia Organa._ Next to it was the neat, but slightly cramped, signature of the former Republic Chief of State.

“You’re kidding.” Isolder asked in a whisper, more as a way to give him time to puzzle out why Leia would be in a hospital room here on Hapes and not at her son’s funeral. 

“I wouldn’t joke about this.”

Suddenly, everything clicked. It was not Kjietelle’s answer, but her tone--the knowing, not-as-professional-as-it-should-be, almost sisterly tone that made it click. Thinking back, Isolder remembered the way his daughter’s demeanor seemed just a tad brighter, even after the news from Coruscant had broken, the way Allana seemed to be a bit bouncier, the slightly smug look Kjietelle had whenever Allana or Tenel Ka visited, and the fact that only Captain Aamodt worked the day shift at the hospital. Isolder doubted that anyone else had noticed these small details, but he had spent a lifetime in the Royal Palace where reading nuance was a fact of life. Jacen Solo was alive and well and undergoing treatment as Jason Naberre.

Exhaling a long breath, he gave Kjietelle a sideways look, “Explains quite a bit, doesn’t it?”

She offered a small smile, “It does.”

“It also raises problems.” Isolder stated, more to himself, as he turned and walked over to the windows trying to decide where to go from here. While he did not mind the sleight of hand per se, it did awfully short-sighted. The more he thought about it, the more frustrated he became – once again, Jacen Solo was going to be the cause of a great deal of pain and suffering for his daughter. The Queen _had_ to know that once the truth was uncovered, the fall-out over this stunt would be massive. Leaning his head against the transparisteel, Isolder sighed angrily as he tried to think of a way out of this situation that would not end in disaster.

Isolder stared sightlessly out the window at the Chume’dan cityscape below him, stewing at his daughter’s seeming inability to think rationally when around one Jacen Solo. Suddenly, he he raised his head with a start. When was the last time his daughter had acted so recklessly? It had been so long ago; he was not even sure of the details. When was the last time Jacen had done something on a whim? Isolder would bet it was more recently, but that it still had been years. It was easy, he reflected, to forget that your children were not ‘kids’ anymore.

Turning his head to Kjietelle, “This cover story Jacen’s been using…how good is it?”

The guardswoman shrugged, “It’s pretty thorough. I’ve got a friend with the _polis_ , and they haven’t found anything.”

Isolder turned his head back to the window, ruminating on this information. “Which means…” He trailed off, wanting Aamodt to answer.

“Either the GAG is _really_ good at creating fake records on the fly, or…” 

“...Jason Naberre was a real person.” Isolder continued quietly. He looked over at the black-haired woman, “Which do you think?”

Kjietelle let out a breath, “Tenel Ka told me that he can no longer use the Force. If true, it would be impossible for him to maintain the lie. And I cannot imagine she would go along with this if he had killed in cold-blood.”

“True. But it would take a lot of time to create a history this good. I can’t see him taking the risk.” The Hapan Prince sighed resignedly and headed for the door, “I guess I’ll just have to ask.”

|

O

_____(___)_____

O O

Isolder paused at Jacen’s door and allowed himself to be carried away by the muffled sounds of laughter coming from the room; sounds that only reinforced the guilt that was already forming as he’d walked down the hall. Part of him wanted to come back later to allow the three of them to enjoy the moment -- Force knows all of them deserved it. The most important lesson he’d learned from his father, though, was that there is never a good time to deliver bad news. With a deep breath, he quietly knocked twice and hit the door mechanism, not waiting for an answer.

Stepping into the room, he was struck by how _content_ everyone looked and offered a small smile of apology.

"Hello, Leia.” Isolder greeted as she stood from her position at the foot of Jacen’s bed. “I see you’ve met Hapes’s newest hero?”

Leia smiled a wan smile as she allowed her friend to kiss her cheek, noticing the Prince’s lack of surprise. “I have.” Her voice dropped to a whisper, “I don’t think I could have survived burying another son.”

Isolder could only nod somberly, “Then we are fortunate you don’t have to.” He released Leia’s hands and turned his attention to Jacen. “But, I have one question before I can agree to this charade: What happened to Jason Naberre?”

Jacen cringed inwardly. While he knew that it would be impossible to hide his true identity from Isolder for very long, he had hoped the ruse would last until his release from hospital. With a resigned sigh, he again recounted how he answered the police dispatch and gradually assumed the identity of Jason Naberre.

When he had finished, Isolder said nothing for a long while staring out the window, clearly trying to decide whether to believe the story and, if he went along with the ruse, what it would mean for the Royal Family. 

Finally, he turned his attention back to Jacen. “What sort of proof do you have?”

Jacen nodded and looked at Leia, “Mom, can I borrow your comlink?” 

“Sure.” She answered, giving him a confused look as she dug it out of her small clutch and handed it to her son.

“Thanks.” Jacen replied as he took the comlink and started scrolling through the display menu. 

Leia’s eyes widened in surprise as it became clear that her son was looking for holos he’d uploaded into her device. Incredulous, she asked, “How did you load holos into my comlink?” 

“Mom, you haven’t changed your passwords since I was 10.” He looked up from the device and gave a mischievous smile, “You really should take comsec seriously. Anyway…” he continued as he went back to looking for the right file, “…I loaded some holos into your ‘Jacen’ folder on the assumption you don’t look there very often.”

There was no accusatory tone in his voice, Leia noticed, just a trace of sadness. She reached over and gave her son’s hand a squeeze and was rewarded with a small smile.

“Here we go.” Jacen announced, having found the folder of he had downloaded. Tossing the comlink over to Isolder, “The holos are what I took at the scene, and there is a copy both the CPD and coroner’s reports.

Curious, Leia stood and looked over Isolder’s shoulder as he scrolled through the files. They both took their time reading the coroner’s report, noting the cause and approximate time of death. With a small nod, Isolder handed the comlink back to Leia.

“This is verifiable?”

“Of course.” Jacen affirmed.

Isolder nodded once; he was, naturally, going to have Captain Aamodt make discrete inquiries into this story, but having Jacen agree to the investigation allayed some of his doubts.

“I’m assuming the two of you have a plan?” Isolder asked, meaning Jacen and Tenel Ka. If he knew anything about his daughter and her best friend, it was that they _always_ had a framework for what they were doing. More than anyone, the two of them knew the costs of trying to improvise a coherent strategy.

Jacen smiled. “We do.” He went on to elaborate on the plan that he and Tenel Ka concocted on the gym floor four nights previous.

After he had finished, Leia gave the Crown Prince an amused look, “They seem to be continuing our ‘daytime-holodrama-too-cheesy-not-to-be-believed’ courting rituals.”

“You mean not everyone falls in love with a warrior witch from a remote jungle world?” Isolder asked in mock disbelief.

Leia shrugged theatrically, “Or marries the smuggler who broke her out of an Imperial detention cell? You mean there are people who have actual _dates_?” 

The three adults all broke into laughter, partly because of the absurdity of their past and partly because of the wary look Allana gave her father. The look that said she was realizing, perhaps for the first time, that _weird_ did not even begin to explain the family she had inherited.

Isolder leaned over the bed and ruffled his granddaughter’s hair, “Time to go kiddo, we need to let your father and grandma talk for a bit.” Allana opened her mouth to protest, but he cut her off, “I’ll let you come see Ja…Daddy tomorrow. Aaa-nnnd…” He drawled, “…I’ve arranged for Leia to spend the night with us.”

Allana squealed in delight and hopped off the bed, scurrying to the other side. As she did, the blonde man looked over at Leia, “If that’s okay with you, of course.”

Leia smiled in appreciation, “Certainly.”

“Yay!” Allana exclaimed delightedly as she hugged Leia’s legs, “I can show you how to lebitate things!”

Leia beamed as she bent and returned the hug, “Deal.”

After watching the two of them leave, Leia sat in the chair next to her son’s bed and took his hand. For a long while, she looked out of the window and contemplated the latest turn in her life. 

“I wish….” She said at last, continuing to look out of the window, “…that you could have trusted me about Allana.”

Even though she could no longer sense her son in the Force, Jacen’s despair and guilt were still quite discernable. 

“I’m sorry, Mom.” He finally replied, trying to fight back tears. “I wanted to.”

Leia did not know what to say to that, so said nothing. She wanted to know more about why he and Tenel Ka thought it would be a good idea to keep their relationship a secret from the family that would have understood the most.

Instead of pressing the issue, she thought it best to change topics for the time being. “What happens now to the GAG?”

Jacen let out a long breath, “In a day or two, NRI is going to quietly arrest 2 Corellian agents that we’ve been helping them follow for the last two months. These agents….” he went on to explain, “…have stockpiled a fair amount of C4 and have been observed doing surveillance on the power substations G-22, G-23, and H-22.”

Jacen paused, seeing if Leia could remember the electric grid from her days as Chief-of-State. Coruscant’s power grid, logically enough, was laid out as an actual grid with the power substations laid out to resemble lines of latitude on a globe with a built-in stagger. The grid, when displayed, resembled a series of interconnected triangles. Jacen knew, of course, that his mother would not remember every substation location, but he was pretty sure she’d remember the ones he listed.

Leia recognized his pause for the small test it was, but was up to the challenge. “That’s the….” she scrunched her face, trying to recall, “….C-See and the Mon Mothma Spaceport.”

The Coruscant Stock Exchange, or C-See, was the largest stock exchange in the Alliance, while Mon Mothma Spaceport was the busiest spaceport in the known galaxy.

Impressed at his mother’s ability to recall information, Jacen smiled as he nodded in agreement. “Also the Imperial Archives, Valorum Memorial Hospital, and about a third of the Embassies from the mid-rim.” 

Leia frowned. Knocking out the substations for that grid sector would certainly be an inconvenience but was hardly a knockout blow. “All of these entities have backup generators. Why target that sector?”

“The backups were never designed to supply power for full operations…all would have to operate at a reduced capacity. And it would probably take weeks to fully repair or replace the damage.” Jacen paused and gave his mother a look, “How far do you think the markets would tumble if C-See had to curtail trading and air traffic had to be rerouted?”

“It would be pretty grim.” Leia agreed, fighting a grimace, “And Omas would be forced to answer all sorts of internal security questions.” 

For a long moment, Leia simply looked at her son as the basic outline of her son’s plan started to coalesce in her mind. Finally, she thought she could see what her son had planned. “NRI is going to find C4 residue at your bombsite, aren’t they?” 

Jacen answered with a subdued nod. “And some of their stockpile has gone missing.” He looked over at his mother and continued softly, “The whereabouts of one of the Corellians is also unverifiable for a period of time.”

Leia really did not know whether to be impressed with her son or frightened by him. On one hand, she was sure that the Corellian threat was real, and that they had definitely planned to cause short-term chaos. On the other, one or both of these agents was going to be tried for a murder that they clearly did not intend to ever commit. Or were they? Leia frowned to herself as she thought it over. All of the evidence of any murder was circumstantial; there were no witnesses, no direct evidence of either person being at the crime scene, and the missing C4 would be easily explained away. She was missing something.

Unbidden, a news report of a few days ago flashed in her memory. Narrowing her eyes, she looked at her son. “What does this have to do with the refinery fire on Tralus?”

Jacen gave her a smile, one of genuine amusement and not of calculated malice. “Nothing at all! And that’s the best part…because of what Corellia was planning to do on Coruscant, they’re going to believe that the NRI or the GAG were behind it.”

“Even better: because that refinery supplied fuel for the fleet, Gejjen is not going to be able to decline when Niathal ‘suggests’ that she investigate the fire personally.” 

Leia started to ask how Jacen knew all of this, but Jacen pressed on, “Omas will want you to accompany his Admiral on this inspection where you’ll be able to quietly pressure Gejjen that because we know what he had planned, we might just have to leave the Sixth Fleet in Corellian space for a time…purely as a safety precaution, of course.”

“Of course.” Leia replied drily, realizing that her son did not really _know_ that any of this was going to happen, but was merely taking an educated guess. “And, of course, I’ll meet with Gejjen and tell him that Omas _knows_ who was behind the bombing on Coruscant and it would be unfortunate if he had to enact an economic embargo against Corellia.”

Jacen smiled at his mother’s reading of events. “Naturally. Which will make a lot of people look twice at what Gejjen is doing. If he’ll sanction the murdering the son of their most famous Ex-pat, what else will he do?”

|

O

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O O

After dinner, after spending most of the evening playing catch with Allana on the palace lawn, and after the bedtime story of how a Princess from Alderaan met a Hapan Crown Prince, Isolder and Leia finally got their granddaughter tucked in to bed. 

Closing the door, Isolder glanced at his friend as they walked down the hall towards living room, “I don’t know about you, but after the events of today, I could _definitely_ use a drink.”

“Please.” Leia sighed, collapsing onto the couch. Isolder nodded and quickly headed downstairs to the kitchen.

A few minutes later, he returned, a bottle of sweet wine and two goblets in his hands. Pouring the wine, he made conscious effort not to look at Leia, “Can I believe your son?” 

Leia made a face as she took the offered glass, “I’ve been wrestling with the same question all afternoon.” 

“And?” he asked when it was clear that she was not going to continue.

Leia stood and started to pace aimlessly around the living room, trying to find the right words. “We’ve known each other a long time. We’ve had a lot of conversations in those years.”

Isolder nodded, “We have.”

“In all that time…” she stopped in front of the fireplace and picked up one of the knickknacks on the mantle, “…I’ve never lied or embellished or stretched the truth either as Chief of State or as your friend.”

“I know.”

Leia shook her head, “You must think that I’ll say anything to keep my remaining son safe and alive. I know that you know that Jacen has done some very unpleasant things. I was very close to being ashamed of my son.” She paused, replacing a small crystal penguin, “But I _know_ he’s telling the truth.” She turned to look at Isolder, “I’ve tried _very_ hard to catch him with any inconsistencies, or _feel_ a lie, but I haven’t. The Jacen of the last few years was trying to force things, make events happen. Now, he is taking the happenings as they come and simply uses them to navigate to an objective. ” She offered a small smile, “He’s only been doing it a few weeks, and he’s already much better at it than I was at his age.”

Leia took a sip of her wine before continuing, “I don’t blame you for not wanting him here, but I think he’d be a great asset for the Palace.”

Isolder moved to the windows and looked out over the gardens for a long moment. “You understand that I will have to keep him on short leash?” He turned his head, “At least for now.”

Leia moved over to the window to stand by her friend, knowing that the Crown Prince had already made up his mind, but did not want to force his hand. “I know.”

Isolder nodded and the two of them stood side-by-side for a while. Finally, he let out an amused sigh. “They used to make a great team.”

Leia nodded, “They can again.” She cast a sideways glance, “With our help, they can redefine Hapes.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The second to last chapter! Thanks for reading.


	14. Restart and Reset

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jacen...er, Jason, is released from the hospital and gets a new chance at life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is dedicated to all who have left kudos and bookmarked, but especially Kahara, IridescentMemories, InevitablyYou, and Sweawm . And many thanks to 'Twerk' who was kind enough to leave a review!

_Magna Keto Hospital, Chume’dan, Hapes_  
  


Two weeks later--  
  
After stepping through the sliding front doors of Magna Keto Hospital, Jason Naberre took a side-step to the right and stopped. Taking a deep breath of the clear fall air, he closed his eyes and sighed, content to bask in the warm sunlight for a long moment.  
  
It had taken Jason far longer, and required more paperwork than he’d expected, for him to secure his release from the hospital. He had to be cleared by the orthopedics department, the urology department (he still puzzled over why...he’d only seen the urologist once), the hand reconstruction specialist, the facial reconstruction specialist, the phlebotomy department, the physical therapy department, and finally, the billing department.   
  
Each specialist and department had given him a small list of instructions and a number to call in case he had any questions. He had had to sign or initial over fifty forms; all of which, of course, were written in the bland, big-word style of medical professionals…a style that only made sense to those who worked in the profession. It was the billing department, oddly, that had taken the least amount of time. Because the Crown had covered the cost of his treatment, he only had to pay the grand sum of 280 credits for his meal expenses.  
  
The physical therapy department had given him a sheet of follow-up appointments for him to attend. He had tried to joke that because the appointments were designed to help him get accustomed with his mechanical right arm, it really should be ‘robotics therapy’. Apparently, the therapist had heard the joke before, as she was decidedly unimpressed.  
  
Mentally shrugging at the memory, Jason opened his eyes and started walking across the large lawn in front of the hospital. Halfway across the lawn, he finally spied the bright green convertible speeder he had been told to look for. Smiling, he made the forty-five degree course correction to his left and nodded at the tall brunette leaning against the speeder’s left-rear fender.  
  
The woman nodded in reply and opened the speeder’s small cargo hatch. Job done, she turned and met Jason halfway, holding out her hand to take his small duffle. As she did, they both smiled at the memory of him taking her roll-on at a spaceport two weeks earlier.   
  
“Ready to start your life again?” Kenara asked in a mock-whisper.  
  
Jason laughed and pulled his new friend into a quick embrace, “Absolutely.”  
  


|

O

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O O

  
  


**Epilogue**

  
After getting settled in his flat, but before he started his position as a civilian instructor for the Royal Marines, Jason was invited to a small gala at the Fountain Palace. The journalists covering the event were impressed by the way the young man from Commenor bantered with the Crown Prince. Even his disregard for protocol by having the first dance with Princess Allana was seen by all as a charming gesture. What the journalists reported on most, however, was the easy rapport Jason Naberre had with their Queen Mother. The two had gotten along so well, that at the end of the evening, he cheekily asked the Queen if she would see a play with him the next weekend. Even more surprising, she agreed.  
  
That was six months ago. And while the Queen still makes news with every visit outside the Palace, hardly anyone comments on the young man from Commenor who often accompanies her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit short, but I felt it the best way to leave it. 
> 
> Thank you for reading! I've considered posting my much longer J/TK story, so please let me know if you're interested in seeing it here.


End file.
